Before or After
One timeline, with the illness in the middle and the two kinds of spending either side.
Click to zoom
Everything on the left is cheaper. Everything on the right is more visible.
Discuss public health with population-level vocabulary rather than personal-health vocabulary.
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Health questions in IELTS are policy questions. Personal-health vocabulary answers the wrong one.
Some people think governments should do more to improve public health.
A Band 6 answer talks about eating vegetables and going to the gym. Those are true, and they answer a personal question the exam did not ask.
IELTS health prompts are policy prompts. They need population-level vocabulary.
| Personal level | Population level |
|---|---|
| I feel unwell | susceptibility in a group |
| eating badly | poor nutrition |
| sitting all day | a sedentary lifestyle |
| going to the doctor | healthcare provision |
| living a long time | life expectancy · longevity |
| feeling happy | wellbeing |
One timeline, with the illness in the middle and the two kinds of spending either side.
Everything on the left is cheaper. Everything on the right is more visible.
Each term makes one particular argument possible. Match them up.
Terms
Definitions
Three decisions where the precise term makes the claim checkable.
One
What you mean: a condition that persists for decades, though it may be mild.
Candidates: acute / chronic
The expert chooses:
Because:
Two
What you mean: the average years a population lives, and you want to cite a figure.
Candidates: longevity / life expectancy
The expert chooses:
Because:
Three
What you mean: vaccination and screening — action taken before anyone falls ill.
Candidates: preventive care / healthcare provision
The expert chooses:
Because:
Six gaps across a Task 2 paragraph, each at population level.
Should governments spend more on preventing illness than on treating it?
The case for prevention rests on where the money actually goes.
conditions such as diabetes and heart disease absorb the largest share of health budgets, precisely because they persist for decades rather than resolving.
Most of them are strongly linked to two modifiable factors: poor and increasingly work, since jobs that once involved movement are now performed at a desk.
Rising rates follow from both, and can be tracked and compared between countries year on year.
measures — screening, vaccination, dietary labelling — cost far less per person than treatment, though the saving appears only after a decade.
The strongest evidence is the simplest: countries that expanded while investing in prevention saw rise faster than those that expanded treatment alone.
Make a population-level case and have the level and collocations checked.
Task 2 prompt: Some people think governments should tax unhealthy food. Others think this unfairly penalises the poor.
Test: if your sentences would work as advice to one person, they are at the wrong level for this question.
Two sentences. At least two terms from this sprint.
If yes, that sentence is at the personal level.