Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-12

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)

Nowadays, people are not consulting with thier doctors instead they tend to do a self medicians and I think this is a negative development and it should be stopped.

Many people think that they know about the medicines and they take them without proper prescriptions,

It is because the medicine is given by a doctor at some point and they think it is safe to take this medicine again if the same health issue appears again. For example, doctor precribe a tablet to a person having fever. and when this person recovers from taking the medicine and later on whenever he got feve he think that taking that medicine again will help him to recover and he would take that medicine again without proper presciption and without visting a doctor.

Self medician is very dengerous in most cases and it can cause a seroius side effects. For instance, if a person suffering from some virus and he takes medicine for fever which was prescribe by a doctor when he got fever by cold, it will causes serious issue and its conditions may gets more worse untill he consult the specialized doctor. To eradicate self mediciations, I think doctors needs to play important role. They should arange seminars about the disadvantages of self medications and encourage people to visit doctor when needed.

In conclusion, I would discourage the self medication as it is very harmfull for health, it can causes the condition to become more worse than treating any health issue. Patient should visit the doctors regularly and take only prescribe medicines.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you consider relying on medicines without consulting a doctor to be negative, and you give relevant reasons, including the risk of side effects and delayed specialist care. The fever-tablet example helps illustrate how someone might reuse a prescription. However, the response only partly addresses the exact topic, which concerns alternative medicines and treatments, rather than self-medication generally. The discussion also relies mainly on one repeated example, and the suggestion that doctors hold seminars is not developed or linked clearly to the wider issue. To strengthen the response, discuss a specific alternative treatment and explain when it may be harmful or, potentially, useful, while extending each main reason with clearer explanation.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an opening opinion, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. The ideas about reusing a prescription and possible harm are broadly connected, and examples help the reader follow the argument. However, progression is limited because the same point—taking medicine without a doctor—is repeated in the body and conclusion rather than developed through distinct supporting ideas. Some links are mechanical, such as “For example,” “For instance,” and “In conclusion,” and the long example sentences make relationships between events harder to follow. Organise the body around separate reasons, use clear topic sentences, and make references such as “this medicine” unambiguous. This would create a more sustained line of argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main concern, including “prescriptions,” “side effects,” “specialized doctor,” and “self medication.” However, the range is limited and several expressions are repeated, particularly “medicine,” “doctor,” and “take.” Frequent spelling errors—such as “thier,” “precribe,” “dengerous,” and “harmfull”—are noticeable and can distract the reader. Some word combinations are also inaccurate or unnatural, for example “do a self medicians” and “serious issue.” Build a more precise set of terms for the prompt, including language for alternative therapies and professional medical advice, and check spelling and collocations carefully. This will make your meaning clearer and your argument more convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including clauses beginning with “because,” “when,” and “if.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to process. For example, “when this person recovers … and later on whenever he got feve he think” shifts tense and has subject–verb agreement problems; “it will causes” and “its conditions may gets” also show faulty verb forms. Sentence boundaries and punctuation need attention, as in “fever. and when,” while missing or incorrect articles and plurals appear in phrases such as “visit doctor” and “serious side effects.” Practise accurate past and present forms, agreement, and sentence punctuation before attempting longer structures.

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