Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-31

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 today's world, an increasing number of individuals with health issues are choosing different medicines and therapies insted of consulting a professional physician. In my view it is a negative development, because many people take medication to reduce pain or fever, however,it is unsafe to use these medicines and treatment without doctor prescription as it cause many side-effects on person overall well being.

One of the main point why it is an negative development is that, people are taking different medications to subside infection and pain. This is mainly because it is easily available and they do not have to go for buying a medicine which save their money and time. For example, a person is suffering from constant abdominal pain and that person is taking painkiller for a long time to reduce pain and discomfort without consulting a doctor. as a result it may reduce the pain temporarily but not cure the disease it might be goes severe or it leads to further side-effects on kidneys.

On the other hand, many people consuming homeopathic or herbal medication for different purposes. To illustrates, people are taking different medicine for a weight loss and another reason is that many people are taking injection for weight loss instead of doing exercises or consulting dietician for proper physical well-being. Consistently, many individuals suffer from heart failure or kidney disease because it cause side-effects of medication.

In conclusion, many people using different medications and therapies without doctor advises, I firmly believes that it is an negative development because it can create more health related problems than curing the perticular health care issues.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you consider self-treatment a negative development, and you give relevant reasons, including temporary pain relief, delayed diagnosis and possible harm to the kidneys. The abdominal-pain example helps illustrate the risk of relying on painkillers. However, the response addresses the issue only partially because some claims are not explained or supported sufficiently. The paragraph about herbal or homeopathic remedies shifts to weight-loss injections, without clarifying how this relates to alternative treatment or why people choose it instead of a doctor. The claim that medication causes heart failure or kidney disease is also broad and needs careful explanation or a more specific example. Develop each reason with a clear link to the question and support it more precisely.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction states your view, two body paragraphs present reasons, and a conclusion restates your position. Examples also help the reader follow the main points. However, progression within and between ideas is sometimes unclear. The second body paragraph moves from herbal remedies to weight-loss injections and then to serious diseases without explaining the connections. Linking phrases such as “On the other hand” suggest a contrast, although the paragraph continues to support your negative view. Some connectors are awkward or repetitive, including “To illustrates” and “Consistently.” Organise each paragraph around one clearly stated reason, then explain and exemplify it; use transitions that accurately show whether you are adding, contrasting or giving a result.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “alternative medicines,” “therapies,” “painkiller,” “side-effects” and “kidney disease,” so the reader can understand the subject and your main concerns. There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “abdominal pain” and “temporary” relief. However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or repetitive, which sometimes makes the meaning less natural. For example, “subside infection” does not express the intended idea clearly, and “doctor advises” is not the natural phrase for medical guidance. Spelling errors such as “insted” and “perticular” also reduce accuracy. Build a bank of precise health-related collocations and check spelling and word forms during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “as it cause many side-effects” and a contrast between temporary relief and an uncured disease. However, complex sentences are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to read. Examples include “it cause,” “many people consuming,” and “I firmly believes,” where subject–verb agreement or verb forms are incorrect. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention: “an negative development” and the lower-case “as a result” after a full stop are examples. Some sentences contain several clauses joined with commas, as in the opening paragraph, making relationships between ideas unclear. Practise accurate sentence patterns, agreement and punctuation before adding more complexity.

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