Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-07

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people think that competition at work, at school and in daily life is a good thing. Others believe that we should try to cooperate more, rather than competing against each other.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.0)

In today's time, competition can be said to be an essence of life. The presence of competition in the day-to-day lives of every indiviual plays a significant role in shaping the person.Some people, however, choose to differ and argue that competition is unnecessary. I personally think that competition is essential and has many advantages if used in proper way.

The world is advancing with immense speed adn everyone wishes to ssurvive in the best manner possible. However, for every good thing, there are hundreds of people trying to achieve it. Thus, to get the desired value of life, every individual pushes their limit and tries to put forward their best version. This allows people to become more efficient over the period of time and establish themselves in the best manner possible.

Competition helps to realise the value of things. When a school-going kid, for example, participates in a competition and wins,the price becomes invaluable to him as he gave his most to achieve it. If the similar thing was just gifted to him by someone, he might not have appreciated its value as much.

Furthermore, through competition, people can be differentiated as their value can be recognised better. Because of competition isn schools, for instance, top performing students can be pinpointed easily. Similarly, competition helps to bring out hidden or surpressed talents too at times.

Though competition is important, it should not replace cooperation. In order to achieve and succeed in any stage of life, one must not forget the basic human traits and behave in any unward manner. No matter what the situation is, the initial thought should always be fair and helpful of others as that is what makes the Eath a better place to live in. One must not harm another just to move a few paces ahead.

Thus, healthy competition should be encouraged. From early age, the essence of healthy competition should be nurtured in kids so that they understand that in order to win, they must not harm another. Even at workplace, management should be careful of conduct where someone is at disadvantage just because of trivial competition. If everyone is slightly considerate, competition can make lives more easier and meaningful.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.0
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you support competition, provided it remains healthy and does not displace cooperation. You give relevant reasons, including that competition can encourage people to improve and help identify students’ abilities, and the school prize example makes one point more concrete. However, the discussion of cooperation is brief and mostly framed as a warning against harming others; it does not explain the positive benefits of cooperating or give a developed example. Some claims about competition, such as its role in making people more efficient, are asserted rather than fully explained. Develop both sides more evenly and show explicitly when cooperation is more effective than competition.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: it introduces your view, develops several advantages of competition, then qualifies that view by stressing fairness and cooperation before concluding. Paragraphs generally have clear purposes, and transitions such as “Furthermore,” “Though,” and “Thus” help readers follow the progression. This already gives the essay a clear structure. To make the progression more consistently effective, connect the ideas within paragraphs more explicitly: the point about recognising people’s value, for example, shifts quickly to identifying top-performing students and hidden talents. Some linking phrases also feel formulaic, and references such as “the similar thing” are not fully clear. More precise links and referencing would make cohesion smoother.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range for the topic, including phrases such as “pushes their limit,” “hidden talents,” “healthy competition,” and “at a disadvantage.” These help communicate your main ideas, and the vocabulary is varied enough to discuss school, work, and personal development. There are, however, several spelling errors, including “indiviual,” “surpressed,” and “Eath,” as well as inaccurate or awkward choices such as “the price becomes invaluable” and “in any unward manner.” Some expressions are also imprecise, including “get the desired value of life.” Proofread carefully and choose more natural collocations; for instance, a prize can be “highly valued,” while people can “achieve their goals.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures such as “If everyone is slightly considerate” and subordinate clauses beginning “Though” and “Because.” Most of the meaning remains clear, and the essay shows attempts to vary sentence structure. Some grammatical errors and punctuation slips remain. For example, “if used in proper way” needs an article, “From early age” also needs an article, and “makes lives more easier” uses an incorrect comparative form. There are missing spaces after full stops and commas, as in “person.Some” and “wins,the.” Review articles, comparative forms, and sentence punctuation, while continuing to use varied structures.

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