Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-12

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)

Some people think that having a competition in work place, at school and in life is valuable things. Meanwhile, some say that cooperation should be given more importance then competition. I believe that teamwork is more beneficial rather than rivalry. Competition gives people motivation to improve himself but cooperation helps to achieve common and difficult task.

One of the main advantage of competition is that its helps to improve people performance and motivation. Despite of competition students and employees put extra hard work to get their goal because of that improves their productivity and skills. It also help people to identify their mistake and weaknesses and people learn their mistake and try to overcome this. For example, when there is a healthy competition among students at school, they try to get better grades and focus their studies. However, i believe excessive competition can sometimes create extra pressure.

On the other hand, cooperation is more beneficial because it encourage teamwork and achieve common goal. When people work together, they share their knowledge and skills its helps to solve difficult task. Cooperation creates chance for every person to contribute their own experience and knowledge and also its creates friendly environment in a workplace and a school. To cite an example, in a workplace if employees work as a team and share their skills, they contribute more effectively in any company project. For these reason, i believe cooperation is more beneficial rather then competition.

In conclusion, competition motivates people to hard work and improve their performance but cooperation helps to achieve teamwork, mutual support and common goal. I believe that, cooperation is far more beneficial for everyone rather than competition.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both sides of the question and state a consistent opinion: “teamwork is more beneficial rather than rivalry.” The discussion of competition includes motivation, improved performance and pressure, while the cooperation paragraph explains shared skills and common goals. These points are relevant, and the school and workplace examples help illustrate them. However, some ideas are asserted rather than fully explained. For instance, you say competition helps people identify weaknesses, but do not show how this leads to improvement; the cooperation example also remains general. The conclusion restates your position clearly. To strengthen the response, develop each main claim with a more specific explanation or example, and make the comparison between the benefits and drawbacks of the two approaches more explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for competition and cooperation, and a conclusion. The progression from one view to the other is easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” help orient the reader. This gives the essay a coherent framework. Some linking is mechanical or unclear, however. Phrases such as “because of that improves their productivity” and “For these reason” do not connect ideas smoothly, while repeated use of “also” and “because” makes the flow less flexible. References such as “its” are sometimes unclear, so the reader must infer what they refer to. Use a wider range of accurate transitions and make links between cause, result and example more explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “motivation,” “productivity,” “weaknesses,” “cooperation,” and “contribute,” so the main ideas are generally understandable. There are also attempts at topic-specific phrases such as “healthy competition” and “common goal.” However, the range is limited and several word-choice, word-form and collocation errors are noticeable. Examples include “valuable things,” “extra hard work,” “get their goal,” and “achieve teamwork”; these are not natural or precise expressions in context. Repetition of “beneficial,” “skills,” and “knowledge” also limits flexibility. Build a bank of accurate collocations for discussing workplace and educational settings, and check whether each noun, verb and adjective fits naturally with the words around it.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast with “but” and a conditional example beginning “when there is a healthy competition.” The overall meaning is usually recoverable, but errors in agreement, verb forms, articles and sentence construction occur across the response. For example, “One of the main advantage” needs a plural noun, and “its helps” should use a subject pronoun and a correctly formed verb. In “When people work together, they share their knowledge and skills its helps,” two clauses are joined without correct punctuation or a linking structure. Capitalisation of “I” is also inconsistent. Practise checking subject–verb agreement and clause boundaries, then proofread each sentence for articles and pronouns. More accurate complex sentences would improve control.

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