Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-09

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 5.5)

Most of the people believe that competition in any form leads to have benificial results, while other people argue that we should cooperate more instead of competing each other. However, in my opinion everyone should cooperate with each it would be more fruitfull for learning and overall result. In this essay i will discuss both views and give my opinion along with example.

If we talk about having competition at work or school or in any aspect of our daily life, will come to know about the adverse outcomes of it. For example, In school or at workplace anyone who is new at these places he will feel sense of jealousy from the others who are doing best in their domain, it will also decrease their morale and ultimately their learning abilities.He will not able to produce desired result.

On the other hand, cooperation at work or at school leads to have benificial results. It aids in learning new skills or doing more hardwork and keep person engaged to work wholeheartly . For instance, from my own life experience when started my internship at hospital, i was newcomer in ICU i did not have any idea about how to deal with any critical situation. Once upon a time, we had cardiac arrest patient in our department firstly, i was compeletly numbed at that time but one of my seniors helped me to deal with that situation. She calmed me down and guided me to perform my desired task effortlessly. By having her help we were able to save person's life.

To sum up, i would say having positive cooperation and good teamwork at any place helps to increase productivity of work

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You give a clear preference for cooperation and include a relevant personal example from your hospital internship, showing how a senior colleague’s guidance helped in a critical situation. This supports your view effectively. However, the discussion of competition is not fully balanced: the paragraph mainly describes jealousy and reduced morale, without explaining why some people consider competition beneficial, such as motivating people to improve or achieve goals. Your cooperation paragraph is more developed, but its benefits could be explained beyond the single example. The conclusion restates your preference but does not bring the two views together. To strengthen the response, explain the strongest argument for each side and make your position clear throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs on competition and cooperation, and a concluding sentence. Phrases such as “For example,” “On the other hand,” and “To sum up” help signal the stages of the discussion. The personal incident also gives the cooperation paragraph a clear sequence. However, progression is sometimes weakened by unclear references and abrupt links. For instance, “anyone who is new at these places he will feel” is difficult to follow, and the opening sentence of the competition paragraph does not clearly connect its claim to the task’s positive view of competition. Use clearer topic sentences and refer explicitly to the people or ideas being discussed. This would make the overall organisation more consistently easy to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “cooperate,” “competition,” “morale,” “learning abilities,” “critical situation,” and “productivity.” The account of the internship also uses some specific language that helps convey the situation. However, the range is limited in places, and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or awkward, such as “leads to have beneficial results,” “competing each other,” and “keep person engaged to work.” Spelling errors, including “benificial,” “fruitfull,” and “compeletly,” also reduce accuracy. Aim to learn common word partnerships and check spelling carefully. More precise vocabulary for the benefits of competition and cooperation would help you express both sides with greater flexibility.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional-style example and a sequence of events in the hospital anecdote. However, errors are frequent, and some sentences are difficult to process. Examples include “everyone should cooperate with each,” “when started my internship,” and “He will not able to produce desired result,” where sentence structure, missing subjects or auxiliaries, and articles affect accuracy. There are also problems with tense and agreement, such as “anyone who is new … he will feel,” and punctuation often runs sentences together. Practise building complete sentences with clear subjects and verbs, and check articles, verb forms, and sentence boundaries. This will make your ideas easier to understand.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.