Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-05

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)

In today's world, most of patients are used alternative medicine instead of visiting usual doctor. Although some might consider it negative, I believe it to extremely beneficial. Not only because of fewer side effect and lowest cost, but also because of natural approach.

There are multiple advantages associated with alternative medicine. Firstly, fewer side effect can be considered as the leading benefit of this development. As some herbal medicine are from the natural resources they have lessor side effoct. Take an example of Japan, a survey conducted in 2024, which showed that 40% of population which used alternative medicine instead of regular check-up have better health as comaare to others. Thus, less side effect can be labelled as the most significant advantage, giving this development a positive outlook.

Secondly, apart from the side effect, lower cost can be another major benefit. As visiting the doctor clenic required doctor fee and also prescibed medicine also have extra charges, it overall increased the cost of medicine. For example, in South Africa most of the community use plant based medicine rather that daily inspection from the physicians. Hence, this mega benefit I believe has the potential to make this development a positive development.

Finally, natural approach can also be considered a leading benefit of this approach. As most of cases they used herbal medicines which are originate from plant and they have much efficacy and safety.

To sum up, even though using the other medicine and treatment also have fewer drawbacks too, but I believe that the advantage in terms less adverse effect and low price, but also because of they have natural remedies.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position that the trend is a positive development, supporting this view with reasons such as fewer side effects, lower costs, and a natural approach. However, some ideas remain under-developed or repetitive. For instance, the discussion on the natural approach in the final body paragraph is very brief and lacks sufficient elaboration or an illustrative example compared to the earlier paragraphs. The supporting details occasionally slip into over-generalisation without fully expanding the underlying arguments, placing the response securely in this band.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

There is a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, and the response is divided into logical paragraphs that each tackle a distinct supporting point. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Finally' are employed to guide the reader through the essay. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty, and referencing is not always completely clear, such as in the concluding paragraph where the sentence structure breaks down and clouds the logical progression. This balance of clear paragraphing with mechanical and occasionally flawed cohesive links bridges the lower and upper requirements of this level.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student displays an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'herbal medicine' and 'efficacy'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'patients' instead of 'people', 'clenic', 'prescibed', and 'effoct'. Additionally, collocation and word forms are frequently imprecise, such as 'plant based medicine rather that daily inspection' and 'lower cost can be another major benefit'. These inaccuracies show a limited yet minimally adequate command of vocabulary, though they do not completely impede communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing utilises a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like conditional and relative clauses. Nevertheless, the range of structures remains limited, and attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty. There are persistent errors in articles, plurals, verb forms, and prepositions within grammatical patterns, such as 'most of patients are used alternative medicine', 'fewer side effect can be considered', and 'in most of cases they used herbal medicines which are originate from plant'. These frequent grammatical errors cause some difficulty for the reader, though the overall meaning remains generally recoverable.

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