Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-04

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 recent years, a growing number of medical research projects have received financial supports from private companies. This essay agrees with the statement as the private sectors have specific goals in assembling different technologies and manpower to create one unique result. The companies run by private sectors are heavily equipped and are often profit oriented so they have concrete concept of achieving goals in a given specific period of time and with a heavy investment from private companies in research, it eases government to allocate its specific budget to improve the overall health condition of the government.

The modern research projects require innovation, technologies and investments. Private sectors provide projects with enough resources so that it can run smoothly. For example, pharmaceutical companies can hire a group of specialized scientists and researchers to conduct research and bring better vaccines to eradicate different diseases which overall benefits a large group of mass.

In other words, when the budget of medical research projects are carried out by private companies, government can focus on improving facilities of primary health care to regional hospitals to provide adequate equipment to carry out complex surgeries too when needed. For example, when a laboratory in regional hospital has different equipment to carry out different tests, the burden for state hospitals are decreased which eventually creates better health facilities overall.

In a nutshell, private companies should invest in medical research projects to work on the specific goals to achieve them and eventually eases government to focus on the overall prospect of health condition of the country. A country can only benefit when it collaborates with private sector to bring the best result out of them.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by expressing a clear position that private companies should fund medical research, supporting it with reasons related to efficiency and investment capability. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat limited and generalised. While the writer touches upon pharmaceutical companies and regional hospitals, the arguments lack deeper elaboration and specific real-world evidence, leaning instead on broad assertions such as bringing better vaccines to eradicate diseases. Furthermore, the prompt asks whether research should be carried out by private companies, individuals, or government, but the discussion focuses almost exclusively on private funding rather than fully exploring the comparative roles of individuals or government bodies. To reach a higher level, the response would need to present more thoroughly extended ideas with fully explained impacts and a more balanced exploration of the options presented in the task.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable logical progression. Each paragraph has a clear focus, moving from an introduction of the writer's stance to arguments involving pharmaceutical companies, subsequent government relief in primary healthcare, and a concluding summary. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally mechanical or repetitive, particularly with transitions like 'For example' used consecutively in the second and third body paragraphs. Referencing is also at times slightly unclear, such as in the phrase 'so that it can run smoothly' where the antecedent is broad. To improve further, the writer could employ a wider variety of cohesive devices and more seamless transitions to connect ideas with greater fluency and precision.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to incorporate less common terms relevant to the topic, such as 'profit oriented', 'pharmaceutical companies', and 'specialized scientists'. However, there are noticeable limitations in lexical range and precision. Frequent awkward word choices and unnatural collocations appear throughout the text, such as 'received financial supports' instead of 'support', 'large group of mass' instead of 'the masses' or 'the general public', and 'eases government' instead of 'allows the government'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but the minor inaccuracies in word choice and phrasing occasionally hinder the fluency of expression. To achieve a higher standard, the writer needs to demonstrate greater control over less common lexical items and ensure more natural collocation choices.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional or relative clauses such as 'when the budget of medical research projects are carried out by private companies'. However, control over grammar is inconsistent, and frequent errors persist. There are noticeable agreement errors, such as 'when the budget... are carried out' and 'burden for state hospitals are decreased', alongside missing or incorrect articles, such as 'to regional hospitals' and 'better health facilities overall'. Punctuation and prepositions within grammatical patterns also show recurring inaccuracies. Although these errors rarely impede overall communication entirely, they occur frequently enough to restrict the response. A higher band would require a wider variety of error-free complex structures and tighter control over subject-verb agreement and article usage.

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

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