Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-10

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)

People have different views regarding competition at work, at school and in daily. Some people supports it and many others believe that we should cooperate rather than competing with each other.

I firmly believe that people should support and cooperate with each other instead of competing with each other, thus creating a cooperative and progressive community.

In general many people believe in competing with each other with is healthy competition towards success. The major benefit of this approach is seen to be keeping up with the priories people have set. This motivates them to work on things more consistently without delay in fear of losing to competitor. This approach is much appreciated and applied in the corporate and consumer centric companies where delay could not be afforded. Consecutively, sense of achievement is another factor which pushes people towards competition and they experience joy and sense of accomplishment after wining the competition.

On the other hand, many believe in cooperation instead of competing with each other. People of this believe in mutual growth, a positive community and shared experiences. In this approach people work together for growth thus creating a positive and growing environment for all the people around them without an negativity.

Also learning opportunities become progressive and all the community walks together instead of getting divided in classes based on these factors.

In conclusion both the approaches create opportunities for people to navigate their life but i believe people should cooperate with each other and it could help in growth collectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address both sides of the question and state a clear preference for cooperation, particularly in the introduction and conclusion. The competition paragraph gives relevant reasons—motivation, meeting priorities and a sense of achievement—while the cooperation paragraph mentions mutual growth and shared learning. However, these points are mostly asserted rather than explained with specific examples, and the discussion of each view remains limited. The phrase “without an[y] negativity” does not clarify how cooperation achieves this, and the conclusion largely repeats your position. The response is also six words below the 250-word minimum; the eight words copied from the task prompt are not counted. Develop each main reason with a concrete example and ensure the response meets the required length.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for competition and cooperation, and a conclusion. This makes the two viewpoints easy to identify, and transitions such as “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” help signal the stages of the argument. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the link between “keeping up with the priories people have set” and companies not affording delays needs explanation. Some connections are mechanical or imprecise, including “Also” at the start of a sentence and “thus” where the cause-and-effect relationship is not fully established. Improve cohesion by linking each supporting point explicitly to the paragraph’s main idea and using clearer references rather than repeating “people” and “each other.”

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “mutual growth,” “sense of accomplishment,” “corporate,” and “consumer centric,” which helps convey the main ideas. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, collocation, word-form or spelling errors make parts less natural. For example, “priories” appears to be an incorrect form, “wining” is misspelled, and “without an negativity” is not an appropriate expression. “People of this believe” is also an awkward phrase, while “positive and growing environment” is vague. Aim for more precise topic vocabulary and check spelling and collocations carefully; this will make your meaning clearer and your argument more convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, including “I firmly believe that…” and the sentence beginning “The major benefit of this approach…”. However, the range is limited, and errors recur in basic sentence construction, agreement, articles and punctuation. For example, “Some people supports” should use a plural verb, and “in daily” needs a noun such as “life.” The opening sentence of the competition paragraph contains the faulty construction “with is healthy competition,” which makes the relationship between ideas difficult to follow. Capitalisation is also inconsistent in “i believe.” Practise building accurate complex sentences and proofread for agreement, missing words and sentence boundaries so that errors cause less difficulty for the reader.

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