Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-30

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Nowadays, a growing number of people with health problems are trying alternative medicines and treatments instead of visiting their usual doctor.

Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Over time people learn about their medical conditions and the behaviour of their body. Thus, they use their experience to deal with health problems instead of consulting their doctor. In my opinion, this can prove to be a negative development leading to serious health conditions.

Initially, this behaviour is mostly observed in adults. When they fall ill, instead of visiting a doctor they start remembering their experience with such an illness in the past. Thinking, its the same problem they may just visit a pharmacy and order same medicine from that time in order to save on doctors consultancy fees. For example, most of the people experience conditions like fever, cough and flu several times. Thus, to save money they may just take some precautionary measures and medicine that is commonly prescribed for such conditions. Though, it maybe effective temporarily, it can increase severity in the long run.

Sometimes, doctors prescribe medication that is light and results in slow recovery and patients can be quite hasty at times turning to other kinds of medicine that will be faster according to their family or friends. Furthermore, today people turn to chatbots and social media rather than doctors. For instance, someone suffering from diabetes instead of regularly visiting their doctor may start taking some traditional medicine he came across through Facebook.

In conclusion, to save money or time people can turn away from their doctors and be their own medics based on their past experiences. This can lead to serious health issues like a fever turning into typhoid. People should be educated properly in order to raise awareness of consequences this may cause.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position that relying on alternative treatments or past experience instead of a doctor is a negative development. The writer introduces relevant ideas, such as financial motivations, relying on past memories of illness, and turning to social media or chatbots like Facebook. However, some of these ideas are under-developed rather than fully extended. For instance, the example of a fever turning into typhoid in the conclusion is abrupt and lacks prior development in the body paragraphs. The position is maintained throughout, but the depth of support places this performance within the Band 6 descriptors, as some ideas remain slightly unsupported or underdeveloped.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, distinct body paragraphs, and a concluding summary. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different arguments, such as personal memory versus external advice from social media. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally faulty or mechanical. For example, the transition "Initially, this behaviour is mostly observed in adults" feels slightly unnatural as an introduction to the first body point, and referencing is sometimes imprecise, such as "Thinking, its the same problem..." where the logical link between sentences is weak. Cohesive devices are present but lack the flexibility and smooth progression expected at higher bands, making a Band 6 score the most accurate fit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as "consulting their doctor," "precautionary measures," and "temporary." There are attempts to use less common vocabulary like "consultancy fees" and "severity," but there are noticeable lexical inaccuracies and word-choice errors, such as "behaviour of their body" instead of "physiology" or "bodies," and "order same medicine" omitting the article. Spelling and word choice are generally sufficient for communication not to be impeded, aligning well with the Band 6 criteria where the vocabulary is adequate but contains persistent errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure through clauses like "When they fall ill, instead of visiting a doctor they start remembering..." However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation slips throughout the text. Examples include missing apostrophes and determiners ("Thinking, its the same problem"), comma splices, and awkward phrasing such as "medicine that is commonly prescribed for such conditions. Though, it maybe effective temporarily..." where punctuation separates a dependent clause incorrectly and "maybe" is written as one word instead of "may be." While these errors do not severely impede communication, they occur too frequently for a Band 7.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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