Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-29

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)

People are nowadays keen to slove their problems in a new way . They try to solve the problem on their own. Sometimes, it solves the problem quickly but can create a situation which can lead to suffer in a long run.

One of the most common situation is people are less tend to visit usual doctor as they have to pay a large amount of fee for visiting the doctor. So, they prefer something less costly and more convenient.

From my point of view , medicine should only be prescribed by real doctors. As in human body there are a lot of complications what only a real human doctor can judge. He can advise the patients about the dose of medicine and the probable side effects. If a person chose anything other than going to doctor for treatment can make the situation worse. For instance, nowadays there are some people who take medicine from the suggestion of artificial inteligence. There is a incident where a 18 year old boy toke medication by asking chat gpt and ended up with a heart attack. So, I strongly belive that the alternative treatments are than visting usual doctor is a negative development. This things could be worse for health especially for young and old people. Another alarming situation is the antimicrobial resistance, the antibiotics must be taken under supervision of registered doctors. At the end , my recomendation is that we must visit a registered doctor to be cured or take medicine.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You give a clear negative position, especially in “medicine should only be prescribed by real doctors,” and support it with concerns about incorrect medication, side effects and antimicrobial resistance. These points are relevant to the question. However, the response addresses the issue only partially: it focuses mainly on self-medication and AI advice, while the task is specifically about alternative medicines and treatments replacing visits to a usual doctor. The reason that people avoid doctors because of cost is introduced but not explored, and the example about the boy is presented without enough explanation or context. To strengthen the response, distinguish alternative therapies from taking medication without medical advice, and develop a balanced, specific explanation of the likely health consequences before reaching your conclusion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: it introduces the trend, gives reasons for avoiding doctors, and then presents your position and supporting concerns. Linking expressions such as “For instance,” “Another alarming situation” and “At the end” help signal the sequence. However, progression is not consistently clear because several ideas are crowded into one long paragraph, and the opening point about solving problems independently is not clearly connected to alternative treatments. Some references are also vague, as in “This things could be worse,” and the conclusion repeats the recommendation rather than neatly summarising the argument. Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, main reasons and conclusion, and make each paragraph develop one central point with clearer links between claims and examples.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “side effects,” “dose of medicine,” “antimicrobial resistance” and “registered doctors,” which helps communicate your concerns. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, spelling and collocation errors make parts of the response less clear or natural. Examples include “slove,” “less tend to visit,” “a large amount of fee,” and “alternative treatments are than visting usual doctor.” Some expressions, such as “real human doctor,” are imprecise for an academic discussion. Aim to use accurate, natural phrases for the topic and check spelling carefully. More precise vocabulary would also help you distinguish alternative therapies from self-prescribing or relying on unverified medical advice.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a conditional structure in “If a person chose anything other than going to doctor for treatment can make the situation worse.” However, complex sentences are often faulty, and frequent errors sometimes make the intended meaning difficult to follow. For example, “One of the most common situation is people are less tend to visit” has problems with number agreement and sentence structure; “there are a lot of complications what only a real human doctor can judge” also uses an unclear relative clause. There are further errors in articles, verb forms and punctuation, such as “a incident” and “At the end ,”. Practise building complete clauses and checking agreement, articles and sentence boundaries before adding complexity.

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