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)

There is a growing debate that, currently, more people are consulting new doctors rather than visiting their usual doctors and try new medicines and treatments. I consider this trend a completely a negative development.

The first and foremost reason behind this is that It is a time consuming process if people with health issues approaches a new doctor for their treatment. Moreover, doctor requires the time to study the medical history and finding the cause. For instance, a patient consults a new doctor, he will start the treatment steadily. While, in this process his condition might get worse instead of improvement. Furthermore, it can also cause other significant problems, such as the patient may get severe reaction of medicine. For example, if the patient is allergic to a certain type of antitode it can cause serious problem. Whereas, new doctor is unaware of the patient's medical history.

Another key reason is that, when people visit new doctors, he will suggest them to take new test to reach at the root of cause. However, it will eventually increases the expenses.For example, a patient of typhoid has already take his testsregarding this disease. On the other hand new doctor will ask hime to take new tests because test after a specific time became invalid. In addition, people who often went to different doctors had not much improvemnet. They try new medicines and treatments that require a some time to worlk properly.

To conclude, although visiting new doctors can help people in certain ways. From my perspective, it will slow down the treatment, alternate medicines can cause reaction and can also be expensive.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you regard the trend as negative, and both body paragraphs give relevant reasons, including delays in treatment, possible medicine reactions, and extra testing costs. These points address the question, and the examples help illustrate them. However, some ideas are less fully developed than others. The discussion of a new doctor needing time to review a patient’s history is relevant, but the link between this delay and worsening health could be explained more precisely. The typhoid-testing example is also difficult to follow, and the claim that people who change doctors see little improvement needs support. Develop each reason with a clearer explanation of how it affects patients.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction states your view, two paragraphs present reasons, and a conclusion restates your position. Sequencing phrases such as “Moreover,” “Furthermore,” and “Another key reason” help signal the progression. However, some connections are mechanical or unclear. For example, “Whereas, new doctor is unaware” does not connect smoothly to the preceding example, and “On the other hand” does not express a clear contrast in the testing example. References such as “he” after “people” or “new doctors” are also unclear. Use linking expressions that show the exact relationship between ideas, and make pronoun references explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “medical history,” “allergic,” “treatment,” and “expenses,” so the reader can understand the main concerns. However, the range is limited and several word choices or forms are inaccurate or unnatural, which sometimes makes the meaning harder to follow. Examples include “new doctors” where the task concerns alternative medicines and treatments, “severe reaction of medicine,” and “root of cause.” Spelling errors such as “antitode,” “improvemnet,” and “worlk” also reduce accuracy. Build a more precise set of health-related expressions and check spelling and collocations carefully; this will help you express your ideas more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “if,” “because,” and “although.” The overall meaning is usually recoverable, but some errors in sentence structure, agreement, articles, and verb forms remain. For example, “people with health issues approaches” should use a plural verb, while “it will eventually increases” combines incompatible verb forms. The opening phrase “I consider this trend a completely a negative development” also has an article and word-order problem. In “a patient consults a new doctor, he will start,” the clauses need clearer grammatical connection. Practise checking subject–verb agreement, verb patterns, and sentence boundaries, especially in longer sentences.

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