Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-15

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)

In today's age, many medical study assignments are carried out by privately held companies rather than government itself. From my prospective, its better that non public companies take responsibility for this field to reduce the burden on government and make sure there will be no political interference.

On one hand, medical research projects run by private companies help to reduce financial burden on government to invest on them. So, government can spend more sums of funds on improving already existing hospitals and medical facilities. furthermore, it enhances the investors to invest in these companies. For example, in America and Israel, companies that conduct medical field related researches sell their shares at higher rates and collaborate with other international companies by their own.

On the other hand, this practice declines the control of government over these projects. Sometimes governing bodies take advantages these studies and try to gain their political goals. For instance, in Pakistan, when privatization of many companies happened and these companies grew and improved their performances dramatically. Although through privatization government lose its control over companies, these companies improve its performance.

Having said all of this, some companies could neglect one's country's interest and focus only on profit, To tackle this, government keep a regular check and balance on these companies.

To summon up this, research projects medical related fields should be funded by closely held corporates to release some financial responsibilities from the shoulders of government and reduce its control over these projects while keeping the country's interest above everything.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses the prompt by discussing who should fund medical research, clearly stating a position that private companies are preferable to reduce the government's financial burden and political interference. The ideas are generally relevant, but the development is somewhat limited and uneven. For instance, the example provided from Pakistan touches on privatization in general rather than explicitly focusing on medical research projects, which weakens its direct application to the prompt. Furthermore, the counterargument and conclusion briefly touch upon government regulation and national interest, but these points are underdeveloped and somewhat repetitive. Overall, the response addresses all parts of the task, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response presents an overall coherent arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, using standard introductory, body, and concluding sections. Logical progression is attempted, and cohesive devices such as 'On one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'To summon up' are employed to guide the reader. However, some cohesive links feel mechanical or awkward, such as 'To summon up this', which is a non-standard collocation for a conclusion. Additionally, referencing is occasionally imprecise, leading to slight disruptions in flow, particularly in the transitions between paragraphs. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, placing the response securely in the Band 6.0 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate their main ideas regarding private companies, government funding, and privatization. There are attempts to use less common items such as 'privatization', 'financial burden', and 'political interference'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and phrasing, such as 'medical study assignments' instead of 'medical research projects', 'From my prospective' instead of 'perspective', and 'non public companies' instead of 'private companies'. Spelling and word formation errors also appear, but they do not severely impede overall communication, reflecting a solid Band 6.0 performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in article usage, punctuation, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'its better' instead of 'it is', 'government can spend more sums of funds' instead of 'funds', 'government lose' instead of 'loses', and run-on structures like 'focus only on profit, To tackle this'. Although these errors occur regularly, the meaning remains mostly clear and communication is rarely impeded, aligning well with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

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

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