Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-11

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 5.0)

Being average does not take you far in life. In order to achieve your dream and fulfill your goals taking part in a healthy competition in necessary whether you are in school, at work or even in your daily life. Being in a competition does not mean you get to pull other people down, demean them or degrade them. When you are in a competiton, you must bring your best and look after yourself on how would you improve certain things to get even better outcomes. I have always believed in taking part in healthy competition that helps in character development. The foundation of better future always begins in school, if you are not competitive enough or people think it brings out negativity such kind of people never becomes successful in life and will always live as someones shadow. In school, you work on your studies pass all the tests, exams get positions you are guranateed to get a better job or even build your own business. Taking part in a competition means taking your life serious and taking your parents struggle into consideration.You can be cooperative and still win the competition, being in a competition does not take aways your upbringing but it shows how you were raised and how you taking things that will benefit you in future seriously. The only things I am againts in comparing one individual's efforts with other this brings the moral down because every single person has its own qualities.

Even at work there are thousand of people working under one company to stand out among these for your own benefit involves being a competitive person as long as your are not crossing the boundaries set by other person and you are following the rules properly there in no thing coming your way to stop you in having a better future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

Your position is clear: you support healthy competition, and you make relevant points about personal improvement, school, and standing out at work. However, the response only partly fulfils the instruction to discuss both views. Cooperation is mentioned briefly in “You can be cooperative and still win,” but the benefits of cooperation are not explained or supported with an example. The argument for competition also relies on broad claims, such as people who are not competitive “never” becoming successful, rather than showing when competition helps and when it may not. To strengthen the response, give the cooperation viewpoint its own developed discussion, then explain your opinion with balanced reasons and specific examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a discernible focus on competition, and ideas generally relate to your position. Some progression is visible as you move from school to the workplace. However, the ideas are presented in a single dense block, so the reader has little help distinguishing the discussion of school, your opinion, and the workplace example. Connections between points are also sometimes unclear: the shift from school success to parents’ struggles, for instance, is not fully explained. Several sentences run together, and linking phrases such as “even” and “as long as” do not always make the relationship between ideas clear. Use separate paragraphs for each viewpoint and your conclusion, and make each paragraph develop one main point in a logical sequence.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonably varied set of vocabulary for the topic, including “healthy competition,” “character development,” “stand out,” and “crossing the boundaries.” These phrases help communicate your main position, and the meaning is usually understandable. However, some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, such as “taking your life serious,” “the moral down,” and “live as someone’s shadow.” Spelling errors, including “competiton,” “guranateed,” and “againts,” also reduce accuracy. Aim for more precise, natural expressions and check spelling carefully. For example, you could describe competition as motivating people to improve, and say that unfair comparisons can lower morale.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt some longer sentences and use conditional structures, as in “as long as you are not crossing the boundaries…,” but control is inconsistent. Several sentences contain errors that make the reader pause, including “taking part in a healthy competition in necessary,” “how would you improve,” and “how you taking things.” There are also problems with agreement and sentence boundaries: “there are thousand of people” and the final sentence joins several clauses without clear punctuation. Most sentences rely on similar patterns, so the range remains limited. Practise building accurate complex sentences, especially with conditionals and relative clauses, and check verb forms, articles, plurals, and punctuation before submitting.

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