By English Test Coach · Updated
Task 2 · Four original health questions
IELTS health essays: explain the policy, the access problem and the limit
A useful health-topic argument names the decision being made. Food prices, remote appointments and local sports sessions involve different actors and different barriers. Start with the question, then explain how your proposed action could affect the people in your example.
These original practice questions and hypothetical examples teach essay planning. They are not recalled exam questions, examiner-scored scripts or guidance on choosing medical care. You can develop an argument without inventing research findings or diagnosing a patient.
Let the instruction determine your plan
Healthy food choices
Some people believe governments should make unhealthy food more expensive. Others believe education is a better solution. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Planning focus: Discuss both policy approaches and give your opinion.
Explain the reasoning behind higher prices and education. Judge which approach you favour, or how they could work together. A paragraph about why health matters does not yet discuss either policy.
Remote medical appointments
More medical consultations are taking place by video or telephone instead of in person. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Planning focus: Weigh benefits against limitations.
Decide whether the advantages of more video or telephone consultations outweigh the disadvantages. Explain the conditions behind your judgement instead of merely listing one benefit and one drawback.
Advantages and disadvantages: learn how to weigh the two sides →
Increasing community sport
Many adults would like to exercise more but rarely take part in local sports activities. Why might this happen, and what could communities do to increase participation?
Planning focus: Explain low participation and match responses to causes.
The adults in this question already want to exercise more. Investigate what makes joining difficult; do not assume that repeating the benefits of exercise removes the obstacle.
Problems, causes and solutions: match the response to the question →
The topic is shared, but the required reasoning changes. Use the first question to compare two approaches, the second to reach an overall judgement and the third to explain causes before proposing responses.
Compare what price and education can change
A higher price changes the cost of a purchase. Education aims to change what someone understands or can do. Neither mechanism automatically establishes the eventual health outcome. Explain the intermediate decision before claiming a wider benefit.
A price-based argument
In a hypothetical shop, increasing the price of a sugary drink could make water more attractive to a price-sensitive customer. The relevant comparison is the cost and availability of the alternatives. If the customer buys the same drink, the immediate effect is a higher bill rather than a changed purchase.
An education-based argument
A practical class could show participants how to plan meals within a budget. Its value depends on whether they can use that knowledge with the time, equipment and ingredients available to them. A general message to “eat better” does not explain how someone makes a feasible change.
Move from description to judgement
Choose a comparison that supports your view. If you favour education because it develops usable skills, explain those skills and acknowledge the access conditions. If you favour a price measure because it reaches people who do not attend classes, explain the purchasing incentive and address the extra cost for people who cannot readily switch.
One original comparison
“A price increase could influence a purchase immediately, whereas a cooking class would require people to attend and later apply what they learned. However, charging more would place extra pressure on a household that continued to buy the same items. I would therefore prioritise practical education linked to affordable alternatives, while recognising that information alone cannot remove a lack of time or suitable shops.”
This is a possible position, not a proven ranking of real policies. It compares reach, action and a limiting condition. The complete food-policy essay develops both views before resolving the discussion.
Separate easier attendance from suitable care
A remote appointment may remove a journey. That is an access argument; it does not prove that every appointment can be conducted remotely or that outcomes are identical. Keep your example bounded and leave clinical suitability with qualified professionals.
For real-world context, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust explains that clinicians usually offer video appointments when an examination or test is not needed, among other circumstances. Its guidance also identifies practical requirements such as a suitable device, connection and private setting. This supports a distinction between clinical suitability and the ability to use the appointment format.
- Define the benefit: imagine a clinician has offered a suitable routine follow-up by video. The patient could avoid travelling to the clinic.
- Explain who benefits: someone with a long journey could attend without arranging the same amount of travel time.
- Test practical access: that person may still lack a reliable connection or a private place for the conversation.
- Weigh the limit: the service needs a workable alternative and professional decisions about the appropriate appointment format. Convenience alone cannot settle suitability.
An essay favouring remote provision can make its support conditional on those arrangements. An essay taking the opposite view can argue that the limitations are more significant, but should still account for the travel benefit. Either way, explain why your chosen consideration carries more weight.
Avoid assigning symptoms to appointment types or stating that a particular treatment should happen remotely. Your task is to develop the service-access argument, not to write a triage protocol. Compare how the complete remote-consultation answer makes its judgement conditional on professional oversight and accessible alternatives.
Make the sports proposal remove the stated barrier
The community-sport question already distinguishes intention from participation. An adult can want to join while being unable to commit to the same weekday each week. Repeating that sport is beneficial does not address that scheduling problem.
An original barrier–response paragraph
“An adult whose shifts change each week may be reluctant to pay for a course that meets every Tuesday. A community centre could offer the same introductory activity at two different times and allow participants to book individual sessions. This would reduce the risk of paying for classes they could not attend. The proposal would still depend on space and instructors being available, so the centre could begin with a short trial and review which times residents actually use.”
The paragraph identifies a person, a specific obstacle, an actor who can respond and a practical limit. The review concerns attendance at the proposed sessions; it does not claim a medical benefit or guarantee that everyone will become a regular participant.
Do not swap barriers halfway through
If the obstacle is an upfront equipment cost, a lower membership fee may leave the main expense untouched. Loan equipment for the introductory sessions is a closer response. If the obstacle is uncertainty about joining an established group, explaining the first session and providing a named welcome contact addresses that uncertainty more directly than another general advertisement.
Choose one or two connected barriers you can develop. A long list of facilities, subsidies and campaigns is less useful when the reader cannot see which problem each proposal solves. The complete community-sport essay shows how information, cost and the first visit can fit into one participation argument.
Choose vocabulary that identifies the mechanism
- A financial incentive
- A cost or reward that could influence a decision.
A lower-priced alternative may provide a financial incentive to change a purchase.
Explain the choice; an incentive does not guarantee a response.
- Affordable alternatives
- Other options that fit the budget in your example.
Practical education is easier to apply when affordable alternatives are available.
Specify the alternative instead of assuming every household has the same options.
- Clinical judgement
- A healthcare decision made using professional knowledge and relevant evidence.
Clinical judgement should determine whether a remote appointment is suitable.
Use this to identify professional responsibility, not to make a clinical decision yourself.
- A participation barrier
- A condition that makes joining or continuing an activity difficult.
A fixed timetable can create a participation barrier for adults with changing shifts.
Name the obstacle so that your proposed response can address it.
- A low-commitment trial
- A way to try an activity before agreeing to a longer or more costly arrangement.
Booking one introductory session would offer a low-commitment trial.
Explain what commitment is reduced: payment, time or equipment purchase.
Repair a response that misses the obstacle
Planning note: “Adults cannot attend a fixed weekly session because their work shifts change. The council should run a campaign telling them that exercise is important.”
Keep the stated scheduling problem. Replace the campaign with a feasible proposal, explain how it helps and add one resource constraint. Do not promise that the proposal solves every participation problem.
Compare one matched response
“The centre could offer the introductory session at two times and let residents book a single visit. Adults with changing shifts could then choose the session that fits that week instead of paying for a fixed course. This would require enough instructor time, so a short pilot could test demand before the centre expanded the timetable.”
The response changes the scheduling and payment commitment. It does not assume that information was the original obstacle. For a different exercise, keep the fixed timetable but change the barrier to equipment cost; a suitable response would then need to change too.
- Have I answered the required discussion, weighing or cause–response instruction?
- Have I explained the step between the proposal and its intended effect?
- Does my example support the size of my claim?
- Does the response address the barrier I actually described?
- Have I kept medical decisions with qualified professionals?
Use the paragraph-development lesson to turn your plan into a connected explanation.
Write an argument with a clear mechanism and limit
Choose one original question, plan its required response and write at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. Public AI assessment is paused; the free workspace provides a planner, timer and word count without an account. The rule-based demo is not an AI score.