Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-03

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)

competition essential for long term growth.

while collaboration with cross fnctional teams or within team enhance their knowledge gap and creativity. further,

Some people hold different opinions about competition or cooperation is more beneficial in workplaces, schools, and daily life. In this essay, I will discuss both views and share my viewpoint.

To commence with, competition become essential for a long-term growth. In schools, workplaces, and daily life, people perform various challenging tasks to achieve success and excel in their respective fields. Nowadays, individuals are highly enthusiastic about learning new things and developing their skills. Healthy competition motivates them to work harder, improve their performance, and reach their full potential. To exemplify this, a student study hard to achieve good grades to beat other students. Similarly, householders do their tedious task timely and try to spend spare time doing part time hobbies or rest. Likewise, in the same way businesses, or firms compete with their rivals to generate high sales and revenue. Therefore, competition at work, schools or in daily life is as good thing.

Conversely, collectively working within team or in cross functional teams broaden individuals horizons. As, it allows people to enhance their knowledge, skills, logical thinking and creativity which not only help them to communicate effortlessly with others, but also give them opportunity to represent their opinion in front of everyone. For instance, an individual working within team have an opportunity to listen everyone's point of view, Analyze and think out of the box to implement a simple task in more productive way. Similarly, children work collaboratively or participate in group activities at school, they gain valuable exposure that enhances their communication skills, teamwork, and overall personal development.

In conclusion, Healthy competition motivate student's to beat others with high grades, also allow individual's to improve efficiency and earn lucrative income while generating high revenue. Similarly, collaboratively working allow themselves to broaden horizon.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both sides of the argument and provides a personal opinion, though the opinion is not clearly stated in the introduction or conclusion. The ideas are relevant, but the development is somewhat superficial. For example, the explanation of how competition leads to 'long-term growth' is quite brief and relies on general statements rather than deep analysis. The conclusion is also repetitive, merely summarizing the body paragraphs without adding a final synthesis or a clear, consolidated stance. To reach a higher band, ensure that your position is clearly articulated throughout the essay and that each main idea is supported by more detailed reasoning or specific, well-explained examples.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, and there is a clear progression of ideas. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To commence with', 'Conversely', and 'In conclusion', which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are slightly mechanical or awkward, such as 'Likewise, in the same way businesses'. Additionally, there are some issues with referencing; for instance, the phrase 'allow themselves to broaden horizon' in the conclusion is unclear regarding who 'themselves' refers to. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that pronouns clearly refer back to their antecedents would enhance the flow of the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'cross-functional teams', 'lucrative income', and 'rivals'. However, there are several instances of imprecise word choice and collocation errors, such as 'householders do their tedious task' (instead of 'perform') and 'broaden individuals horizons' (missing an apostrophe). Some phrasing is repetitive, particularly the use of 'high' to describe both 'sales' and 'revenue'. To improve, focus on using more precise collocations and ensuring correct word forms, such as using 'broaden their horizons' rather than the current phrasing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'competition become essential', 'student study hard', 'individual working... have an opportunity') and missing articles (e.g., 'within team' instead of 'within a team'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with unnecessary apostrophes used in plurals like 'student's' and 'individual's'. While these errors do not prevent understanding, they occur frequently enough to limit the score. Increasing the accuracy of basic grammatical rules and proofreading for subject-verb agreement would significantly improve the quality of the writing.

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