Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-11

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 5.5)

Some people argue that competition at work, school and in daily life is considered as a good thing. On the other hand some individuals believe that we should try to cooperate more rather than competing against each other. In my opinion, both the things should be on equal as in this way it can be more beneficial. This essay will compare both the views and justify my opinion.

The first segment will highlight the feature of being competitive in daily life. Firstly, in terms of school competition helps students to achieve better marks in subjects or examination and further helps them to research more regarding particular topics so it can help them further in future. Meanwhile, at work competition works as a motivation to work hard and better than others to earn more profits or promotions. For example, due to competition among the different companies , product quality increases consumer often get discount and better service in order to stand out than their rival companies.

On the other hand, some believe that rather than competing against each other and cooperate more. Because people often face many challenges or difficulties due to competition and the rate of depression and stress also increases among the population. For instance, children often get depressed or commit suicide because of not getting enough marks in competitive exams. Therefore, some believe that working together and uplifting each other provide much more benefits.

In my opinion, competition is necessary for individual development but cooperation and helping others should be considered ; people get jealous of others success and rather than appreciating it and improving themselves they develop negative thoughts among themselves. Thus, it is important to have both in equal to live peaceful life.

To conclude, competition in daily life and cooperation both are equally important in development and innovation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation and providing a clear personal opinion. The ideas are relevant, such as the mention of academic performance and corporate innovation for competition, and the psychological impact for cooperation. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding the balance between the two concepts in the conclusion is a bit brief. To reach a higher band, you should aim to expand on your examples with more depth and ensure your position is consistently maintained and fully supported throughout the body paragraphs.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, and there is a clear progression of ideas. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Meanwhile', 'For instance', and 'To conclude' to link your thoughts. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly repetitive. Additionally, some transitions between sentences are a bit abrupt, such as the shift in the third paragraph. Improving the variety of your linking words and ensuring that each paragraph has a strong, unified topic sentence would enhance the flow and coherence of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'innovation', 'rival companies', and 'individual development'. However, there are some instances of imprecise word choice and minor collocation errors, such as 'both the things should be on equal' and 'have both in equal to live peaceful life'. These errors do not impede communication, but they do limit the precision of your expression. To improve, focus on learning collocations and using more sophisticated vocabulary to express abstract concepts more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While you attempt complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles, prepositions, and sentence fragments (e.g., 'rather than competing against each other and cooperate more'). Some sentences lack necessary subjects or verbs, which affects clarity. While these errors rarely prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they are frequent enough to keep the score in the 6.0 range. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and proofreading for missing words would be highly beneficial.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.