Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-19

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 this age,a large number of individuals who are facing health problems ,are looking for other way of medicines and treatments rather than reaching out to doctor.I firmly believe this is a negative development.

One of the reason is people don't have sufficent knowledge about health medicines.Only Based on intuition many patients suffer by using alternative methods.As a result,the disease becomes more complex and eventually affects on the health.Despite of being healed ,they spend twice as much money on ineffective treatments method.For instances, there is a common tendency of people taking paracetomol without consulting doctors.Therefore such actions not only bring damage to body organ but also creates other health hazards.

Scientific method of treatment are more accurate in terms of detecting disease,testing and solutions.Alternative solutions such as herbal medicines solely based on human's ancient evaluation.If people were solved all medical issues through alternative way,there would have no existence of today's advanced medical science.Cancer can't be heal naturally .Thus people need to overcome problems with the help of doctor

In conclusion we can say that people who prefers alternative pathway rater than consulting doctors can suffer due to lack of knowledge and accuracy of treatments.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

Your position is clear from the opening: you consider replacing a doctor with alternative treatments a negative development, and the conclusion restates this view. You also give relevant reasons, including limited medical knowledge, ineffective treatments, and the value of scientific diagnosis. However, the response addresses the task only partially because these points are brief and not sufficiently explained or supported. The paracetamol example is relevant, but its connection to alternative medicine is unclear, and the claim about cancer is asserted rather than illustrated. The response is also 56 words below the required minimum, which limits the space available to develop your argument. Extend each main point with a clear explanation and a specific, relevant example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The main position is easy to identify, and linking expressions such as “As a result,” “Therefore,” and “In conclusion” help signal relationships between ideas. However, progression within the body paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow. For example, the first paragraph moves from limited knowledge to spending money and then to paracetamol without clearly showing how each point supports the argument about alternative treatments. Some transitions, including “Despite of being healed,” do not express the intended relationship clearly. Organise each paragraph around one central reason, explain it in sequence, and use referencing and linking phrases that make the connections between claims explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “alternative medicines,” “detecting disease,” “medical science,” and “health hazards,” so the reader can understand the general subject and your position. There is also an attempt to use more formal expressions such as “ineffective treatments.” However, the range is limited, and several inaccurate or unnatural choices make parts of the argument harder to interpret. Phrases such as “other way of medicines,” “alternative pathway,” and “ancient evaluation” are unclear or imprecise; “affects on the health” also uses an unsuitable collocation. Spelling and word-form errors, including “sufficent” and “treatments method,” are noticeable. Build a bank of accurate health-related collocations and check spelling and word forms when editing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “If people were solved all medical issues through alternative way, there would have no existence…”. This shows an effort to express hypothetical ideas, but the structure is faulty and the meaning becomes difficult to follow. Errors occur frequently in sentence construction, agreement, articles, and verb forms: for example, “One of the reason is,” “Scientific method of treatment are,” and “Cancer can't be heal naturally.” Punctuation and spacing are also inconsistent, as in the opening sentence. These errors sometimes impede understanding, even though the overall argument remains discernible. Practise accurate basic sentence patterns first, then build complexity, checking subject–verb agreement, articles, and verb forms.

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