Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Some people believe that competition is more beneficial than cooperation in workplaces, schools, and everyday life, while others argue that cooperation leads to better outcomes. In this essay, I will discuss both views and represent my viewpoint.

To commence with, competition becomes essential for 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 a good thing.

Conversely, collectively working within a team or in cross functional teams broadens 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 has an opportunity to listen everyone's point of view, Analyze and think out of the box to implement a simple task in a more productive way. Similarly, when children's 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, competition encourages people to work harder, improve their abilities, and achieve greater success in education, careers, and business. At the same time, cooperation enables individuals to broaden their horizons, develop essential interpersonal skills, and produce better results by working together. Therefore, I believe that a healthy balance between competition and cooperation is the most beneficial approach in workplaces, schools, and everyday life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the benefits of competition and cooperation before providing a clear personal opinion in the conclusion. The ideas are relevant and generally well-developed, though some examples, such as the mention of 'householders' doing 'tedious tasks,' are slightly tangential and do not strongly support the argument about competition. The position is consistent throughout the essay. To reach a higher band, ensure that all examples are directly linked to the core argument to avoid minor lapses in focus.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used effectively to separate the two opposing viewpoints. Cohesive devices such as 'To commence with,' 'Conversely,' and 'In conclusion' are used to guide the reader. However, some transitions are slightly mechanical, and the flow between sentences within paragraphs could be smoother. For instance, the transition from discussing students to householders in the second paragraph feels abrupt. Overall, the progression of ideas is clear and easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There is an attempt to use less common items like 'cross-functional,' 'enthusiastic,' and 'productive.' However, there are some minor inaccuracies in collocation and word choice, such as 'householders do their tedious task timely' and 'broadens individuals horizons' (missing apostrophe). The range is sufficient to convey meaning, but more precise and sophisticated vocabulary would be needed to reach the higher bands. The spelling is generally accurate throughout the text.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the writer attempts complex sentences, there are recurring grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'a student study hard' instead of 'studies') and pluralization (e.g., 'children's work' instead of 'children work'). Punctuation is generally functional, though there are missing possessive apostrophes. Despite these errors, the meaning is never obscured, and the communication remains effective. To improve, the writer should focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and ensuring consistent verb forms.

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