Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-08-11

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Nowadays, many medical research projects are funded by private companies. In your opinion, do you think that research should be carried by private companies, individuals or government?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Nowadays, lager amount of private companies fund medical research programs, while governmental departments and individuals also contribute in science development. Although, private organizations provide substantial finance resource and encourage innovation, but this essay agrees that government should play leading role to primarily carry out and funded the research projects. It should be free from commercial interests.

One of the main reason is why government should take the responsibility of research to more focuses on social health sector. Although, private companies invest in the researches to gain high commercial incentives, such as new medicines , cosmetic treatments and medical devices. However, some serious disease relatively affect small amount of number where pharmaceutical companies may not willing to fund , because they are not getting high profits . On the other hand, government spent on studies of those disease, it concern to priorities overall health care. Foe example: US government still funded rare disease because the citizens deserve the treatment, which is not much attractive in terms of profits for pharmaceutical companies.

Another main reason why government should take lead to carry out research to promote access to the healthcare. Private companies motivated by the heavy returns , so they offer expensive medicines, treatment and other innovative technology. Which can only affordable for the wealthier people . In contrast, government funds provides affordable treatment which give financial assistance to the every group of income. This is mostly for the developing countries where the people hardly bear the cost for general medicine. For Instance : in Pakistan government hospitals offer affordable treatment to everyone.

In conclusion, Private sectors funded the different scientific researches because they motivate high returns. Whereas, government should take the leading position to invest in multiple research projects which breakthrough the public healthcare , and maintained the clinical trails and safety.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by presenting a clear position that government funding should take precedence over private funding. The ideas are relevant, focusing on social health and affordability. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding rare diseases is a good point, but it could be expanded with more specific detail on how government intervention differs from private sector limitations. The essay maintains a consistent stance throughout, but the conclusion is slightly repetitive and does not fully synthesize the arguments presented in the body paragraphs. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, but the depth of analysis remains at a mid-level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear central theme. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'On the other hand', 'In contrast', and 'In conclusion', which help guide the reader. However, there is some mechanical use of these devices, and occasionally, the flow between sentences is slightly disjointed due to grammatical errors. For example, the transition between the discussion of private companies and government funding in the second paragraph is a bit abrupt. Referencing is generally clear, but the paragraphing could be improved by ensuring that each paragraph has a more robust topic sentence that fully encapsulates the argument to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning, but it lacks the precision and sophistication required for a higher band. There are several instances of awkward word choices or incorrect collocations, such as 'lager amount of private companies' (instead of 'a large number of') and 'finance resource' (instead of 'financial resources'). The student attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'pharmaceutical companies' and 'clinical trials', which is positive. However, the repetition of basic terms like 'money' or 'funds' and the misuse of word forms (e.g., 'funded' instead of 'fund') limit the score. More variety and more accurate collocations are needed to reach a higher level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede readability. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'government spent on studies'), incorrect verb forms (e.g., 'government should take the leading position to invest... which breakthrough the public healthcare'), and punctuation errors, such as the misuse of commas before 'but' and 'because'. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors is high. To improve, the student should focus on basic sentence construction, specifically ensuring that verbs are correctly conjugated and that complex sentences are punctuated accurately to avoid run-on or fragmented structures.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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