Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-09

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, many research projects which are carried out by the people from the medical field are funded by private companies. In my opinion, government should take this responsibility because the research could be beneficial for the country as well.

Many private companies support a lot of medical research projects so that they could get recognized at a higher level. This is beneficial for them as they could enhance their reputation in the market. For example, if research is recognized by a company, people would definitely visit the company because of a trusted reputation. There are many articles which got published and the company through which they got funded received all the credit instead of the actual people behind it.

However, on the other hand, in my opinion the government should fully support these kinds of projects because of the hard work of the students. For example, most of the private companies fund these projects just for gaining benefits and credit. Furthermore, the students and their talent get suppressed in between. As a result, they might get demotivated and less encouraged towards their field. This may lead to many mental health problems too. As students might get stressed and anxious. Therefore, research should be carried by government and those who put their efforts should be appreciated.

In conclusion, students put a lot of effort in their professional fields, moreover they should get praised and their work should be handled by the government. As a result, they will be motivated to perform better afterwards.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is identifiable: you believe the government should take responsibility for medical research, and you give reasons involving recognition, students’ effort, and motivation. These points are relevant, but the response only partially develops the question. The discussion of private companies focuses mainly on reputation and credit, while the alternative of individuals is not addressed, and the benefits or drawbacks of government funding are asserted rather than explained. For example, “the research could be beneficial for the country” is not followed by a specific explanation or example. To strengthen the response, compare the roles of all three possible funders and develop each main reason with a clear explanation and a relevant, concrete example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, and the reader can follow the general argument for government funding. However, progression within the body paragraphs is uneven: the first paragraph discusses company reputation and then shifts to researchers receiving credit, while the second moves from students’ recognition to mental health without fully connecting the steps. Linking phrases such as “However, on the other hand,” “Furthermore,” and “As a result” are sometimes repetitive or do not clearly show the relationship between ideas. The conclusion also repeats earlier points rather than drawing them together. Organise each paragraph around one main reason and use clearer references and transitions to show how supporting details relate to it.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “medical research projects,” “reputation,” “demotivated,” and “mental health problems.” There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “put their efforts” and “professional fields.” However, the range is limited and some word choices or collocations are noticeably unnatural, which makes parts of the argument less precise. For instance, “research should be carried by government” is not the natural expression for this meaning, and “recognized at a higher level” is vague. Repetition of “students,” “research,” and “benefits” also limits flexibility. Aim for more precise academic collocations and vary repeated terms while keeping the meaning clear.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures such as “if research is recognized by a company” and clauses beginning with “because” and “as a result.” The overall meaning is generally understandable, but control is inconsistent, and some sentence structures are incomplete or awkward. “As students might get stressed and anxious” is a dependent clause presented as a sentence, while “the students and their talent get suppressed in between” has an unclear grammatical relationship between its parts. There are also issues with articles and sentence punctuation, as in “government should take this responsibility.” Work on forming complete sentences, checking clause boundaries, and reviewing article use. More accurate control of these structures would make your reasoning easier to follow.

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

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