Band 9 model answer
A model answer written to illustrate a Band 9 response to this question, with the rubric breakdown and what carries it. Written by us as a teaching example, not a verified exam script.
“Antibiotic resistance is becoming a serious global threat. What are the main causes, and what can be done?”9
Overall
9
Task response
9
Coherence & cohesion
9
Lexical resource
9
Grammar
The decline in the effectiveness of antibiotics represents one of the gravest threats to public health in the modern era. This essay examines the principal causes of this crisis and proposes measures at both individual and systemic levels to address it.
The overuse and misuse of antibiotics are the central drivers of resistance. In many countries, antibiotics are sold without prescription, allowing patients to self-medicate for viral infections against which antibiotics are wholly ineffective, a practice that selects for resistant bacterial strains without providing any therapeutic benefit. Agricultural use is equally problematic: livestock industries administer antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in cramped conditions, producing reservoirs of resistant bacteria that enter human food chains and the wider environment. Globally, the development pipeline for new antibiotics has also dried up because pharmaceutical companies find it commercially unattractive to invest in drugs that are prescribed sparingly and sell cheaply.
Addressing the crisis requires action on several fronts simultaneously. Stricter regulation is essential: governments must enforce prescription requirements and impose tight limits on agricultural antibiotic use, as the European Union has done with some success. Surveillance systems capable of tracking resistance patterns across borders would allow earlier detection of emerging threats. At the same time, incentivising pharmaceutical research through public funding and guaranteed purchase agreements could restore the commercial viability of antibiotic development. Finally, public education campaigns must shift the widespread misconception that antibiotics are a general cure-all, reducing demand for inappropriate prescriptions.
No single measure will resolve a problem decades in the making, but a coordinated international response, treating antibiotic resistance with the same urgency as climate change, offers the most realistic path to preserving the efficacy of these life-saving medicines.
- •Clearly organised into distinct cause and solution sections with logical sequencing throughout.
- •Agricultural use and the broken pharmaceutical pipeline are specific, often-overlooked causes that demonstrate depth of knowledge.
- •EU regulation cited as concrete evidence that policy action has worked.
- •The closing analogy to climate change is rhetorically effective and appropriate in register.
- •The essay could briefly acknowledge international coordination challenges (e.g., differing regulatory standards) to make the solution section feel more grounded.
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