Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-28

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 5.0)

Nowadays, many medical research is very important for improving human health. Although private companies and individuals can support medical research, i believe that the government should play the main role in funding and controlling it.

firstly, government can focus on the health needs of all people. private companies mainly want to make a profit so they may focus on medicines that can earn more money. However the government can support research for serious diseases and treatments the are needs by poor people this can help in society.

second , government control can make medicals research safer. New medicines must be tested carefully before they are given to patients. The government can make strict rules and check whether researches follow safety and ethical standards. for example vaccine research needs proper testing before a vaccine is used by the public. on the other hand private companies also have some advantages . They can invest a large amount of money in research and use modern technology. They can also develop new medicines and treatments quickly.

in conclusion i believe that the government should take the main responsibility for medical research because public health is more important than profit . However privates companies should also work with the government to develop new and useful treatments .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The student addresses the prompt by expressing a clear position that the government should lead medical research funding. Main ideas are introduced regarding public health needs versus profit motives, as well as safety and ethical regulations. However, the response falls short of the 250-word minimum, containing only 212 words. Because the length requirement is not met, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and truncated, particularly in the conclusion where private-public partnerships are introduced too briefly without full elaboration. Consequently, these limitations prevent the response from achieving a higher band score. To improve, the student must expand their arguments and ensure the essay reaches the required word count.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates an overall logical structure with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is attempted, though some paragraphs mix contrasting ideas, such as introducing private company advantages directly after discussing government safety regulations in the second body paragraph. Cohesive devices are used to signal sequence, such as 'firstly' and 'second', but punctuation and capitalization errors with these links (e.g., 'firstly, government...', 'second , government...') detract slightly from fluent cohesion. Referencing is generally clear, but transitional flow between sentences can be abrupt. Overall arrangement is coherent enough to follow easily, aligning with Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate vocabulary range for the task, touching on relevant thematic words such as 'medical research', 'profit', 'vaccine research', and 'ethical standards'. However, there are noticeable lexical and spelling inaccuracies throughout the text, including 'medicals research', 'researches' instead of 'researchers', and missing capitalizations for pronouns ('i believe') and sentence starters ('firstly', 'second', 'in conclusion'). Furthermore, vocabulary is sometimes repetitive (e.g., repeating 'medical research' and 'private companies'). While communication is not severely hindered, these recurring slips place the vocabulary performance firmly at Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as concessive clauses ('Although private companies and individuals can support medical research, i believe...'). However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several punctuation and capitalization errors, missing articles (e.g., 'government can focus', 'treatments the are needs'), and minor prepositional confusions. Complex structures are occasionally faulty or awkwardly phrased, such as 'treatments the are needs by poor people'. Despite these errors, the meaning remains mostly clear to the reader, which fits the Band 5 descriptor for grammatical range and accuracy.

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