Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-08

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)

At present, number of diseases increasing day by day and affecting people health. Patients avoiding their treatments and trying alternative sources to cure themselves. From my point of view, it is a negative development.

People who live in rural areas have high illiteracy rate and they do not believe in science. It is a major issue where the alternative treatments start. These people believes in witch doctors who give them charms for healing and some times they give them water which have some herbs in it and tell them to drink this water and they will heal in no time. Another alternative, these people use is to go to the faith healer and try to cure their disease.

Educated people some times think that they will heal theirselves by eating healthy food, doing excercise or taking medicines on their own. People do not go to the specialist for their treatments they think that it will heal with the time but in the end, they ended up in a critical situations and fighting for their lives. Some people use herbels for their treatment and these herbs make them more sick. Some people think, if they get operated they will die and they start thinking for other possibilities.

To conclude, I think government should give awareness to the people that there is no alternative sources and treatments other then medicines and operations to cure the disease. Futhermore, they should ban all the witch doctors and charm sellers who distract patients from their real treatments.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear from the introduction: you consider the growing use of alternative treatments a negative development, and the conclusion reinforces this view. You give relevant reasons, including reliance on faith healers, self-treatment, and delays in seeking specialist care. The example of people becoming critically ill after waiting is particularly relevant. However, some points are asserted rather than explained: for instance, the claim that rural residents “do not believe in science” is broad, and the discussion of herbs does not explain how they may cause harm. The response also focuses mainly on particular groups and does not fully explore why people generally choose alternatives or distinguish potentially useful complementary care from unsafe substitutes. Develop these points with clearer explanations or a specific example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction states your view, two body paragraphs present reasons, and a conclusion restates your position. The ideas generally progress from rural faith-based practices to self-treatment and delayed medical care. Basic linking phrases such as “Another alternative,” “To conclude,” and “Furthermore” help signal relationships. However, connections between some ideas are abrupt: the shift from educated people self-treating to fears about operations is not fully explained, and several sentences repeat “Some people” or “these people,” making the progression feel list-like. Referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly “these herbs make them more sick,” where the specific risk could be stated more precisely. Use clearer topic sentences and link each example explicitly to your argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate your main ideas, including “alternative treatments,” “specialist,” “faith healer,” and “critical situations.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions such as “witch doctors” and “charms for healing.” However, the range is limited and some word choices or collocations are inaccurate or imprecise, which makes parts of the response less natural. Examples include “alternative sources to cure themselves,” “high illiteracy rate,” and “fighting for their lives”; the intended meaning is understandable, but more precise phrasing would strengthen the argument. Spelling errors such as “excercise,” “herbels,” and “Futhermore” are also noticeable. Build a wider set of accurate health-related expressions and check spelling and collocations during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You communicate your main points using both simple sentences and some attempts at longer structures, such as “People do not go to the specialist for their treatments they think that it will heal with the time.” However, sentence control is inconsistent, and errors sometimes make the reader pause. For example, “Patients avoiding their treatments” lacks a finite verb, while “These people believes” has subject–verb disagreement. There are also problems with articles and number in “a critical situations,” and the sentence about not going to a specialist joins two independent clauses without suitable punctuation or a conjunction. Work on accurate basic sentence patterns first, then practise combining clauses with clear punctuation and varied conjunctions.

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