Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-06

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 6.0)

At present, an increasing number of individual suffering from different health issues tend to have alternative medicines and teatments rather than consulting to their regular doctor. In my point of view, it is a positive development because it helps them to identify the best way of treating themselves.

Consulting with the same health instructor may not always brings about positive outcomes. The medicines or therapies providing by the doctor sometimes may be ineffective. Therefore, if the patients continuosly visit the usual doctor, they can not identify due to what reasons they can not recover from their problems. In fact, there is an another chance of getting the wrong doctor who is not qualified enough.

However, when the demographics choose different treatments they can satisfy them and can recognize the real issue. Such as, when they take any alternative medicines they can compare the effects of both of the medicines, which they have took before and which they are taking at present. As a result, it becomes easier for them to reach at a final dicission that which one is better.

Addmittedly, sometimes the alternative therapies can cure the diseases in a faster rate than the previous treatments.Therefore, if they did not try the diverese way they may not figure out the solutions.

Conversely, there tend to be some challenges of altering the treatments. For instance, sometimes it cause severe health issues instead of recovering from the older one. That can be due to do not completing the doses of first medicines or for the the reactions between two diffrent kinds of medicines.

In this case, people should make them sure that the older doses must be completed and also aware about the impacts of new medicines and treatments.

All in all, I believe that choosing alternative medicines rather than stick with the regular doctor would be a positive development, although some precautions must be maintained by the pateints neither it may deteriorate their health condition.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout, arguing that turning to alternative medicine is a positive development. Key ideas are presented, such as the potential limitations of conventional doctors and the ability to compare treatments, showing that the main parts of the prompt are covered. However, some ideas remain under-developed or briefly stated, lacking deeper elaboration or fully convincing examples. For instance, the discussion on how patients compare medicines could be expanded with a more concrete illustration. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to extend and support all arguments more thoroughly, avoiding superficial treatment of complex points while maintaining a consistent and well-developed stance from introduction to conclusion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance, and the ideas are organised into distinct paragraphs that follow a logical sequence from introduction through body points to a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used throughout the text, such as 'Therefore', 'However', and 'For instance', showing an attempt to connect ideas. However, referencing and cohesion can occasionally feel mechanical or slightly faulty, as seen in transitions like 'Addmittedly' and 'neither it may deteriorate', which disrupt the smooth flow of information. To move to the next level, the writer should employ a wider and more flexible range of cohesive devices more naturally, ensuring that inter-sentence relationships are tighter and referencing within and across paragraphs is consistently clear.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate to communicate the main arguments, demonstrating an attempt to use less common items such as 'demographics', 'deteriorate', and 'conventional' equivalents. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and word form throughout the text. Examples include 'individual suffering' instead of 'individuals suffering', 'have alternative medicines and teatments' instead of 'try alternative medicines and treatments', 'consulting to' instead of 'consulting', and spelling slips like 'continuosly', 'dicission', 'diverese', and 'pateints'. These lexical errors and awkward collocations reflect a limited range and occasional strain on the reader. To achieve a higher band, the student must expand their vocabulary control, reduce word-choice errors, and pay closer attention to precise word forms and natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating that the student is attempting varied structures such as conditional-style clauses and subordinate structures. Nonetheless, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that can cause some difficulty for the reader. Issues involve verb forms, prepositional patterns, and article usage, such as 'medicines or therapies providing by the doctor', 'there is an another chance', 'when the demographics choose', and 'sometimes it cause severe health issues'. Punctuation and sentence boundary errors also occur, such as run-on phrasing and missing commas after introductory elements. To reach the next tier, the writer needs to increase the proportion of error-free sentences and exercise tighter control over complex grammatical patterns, ensuring accurate tense usage, subject-verb agreement, and article placement.

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