Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-22

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)

Nowadays, people always talk about competition and cooperation at work, at school, and in daily life. Some people think competition is a very good thing for everybody. But other people believe cooperation is much better than competing against each other. In my opinion, I will discuss both side in this essay.

On the one hand, competition has some good sides for people. When people compete, they try to work harder and faster to be the best. For example, in school, students study much more to get higher marks than their classmates. At work, workers try to do better job to get more money or a good new position from their boss. So, competition can make people work harder because they always want to win the game.

On the other hand, cooperation is also very important in daily life. Working together helps people solve hard problems much easier and faster. In a big company job, if workers help each other every day, they can finish projects fast and make less bad mistakes. Also, competition can make people feel very stressed, tired, and angry with each other. But cooperation creates a friendly environment at work and at school. People can make very good friends when they cooperate with each other.

In conclusion, I think competition can motivate people to work harder in their daily life. However, I believe cooperation is more important because helping each other makes better relationships, better teamwork, and gives less stress to people. So we should learn to work together more than competing against each other in our lives.

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 and logically grouped into paragraphs. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat basic. For instance, the examples provided—such as students studying for marks or workers wanting more money—are quite generic. To reach a higher band, you should aim to extend your arguments with more nuanced analysis or specific, real-world examples. The position is consistent throughout, and the conclusion effectively summarizes your stance, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central topic. The progression of ideas is logical, moving from the benefits of competition to the advantages of cooperation, and finally to your conclusion. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand,' 'On the other hand,' and 'In conclusion' to signal shifts in the argument. While the flow is generally smooth, the linking between sentences is sometimes repetitive (e.g., starting multiple sentences with 'Also' or 'But'). Increasing the variety of your transition words and ensuring that referencing is precise would help improve the overall cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task but remains somewhat limited and repetitive. You rely on simple descriptors like 'good sides,' 'hard problems,' and 'bad mistakes.' While these words communicate your meaning clearly, they lack the precision and sophistication expected at higher bands. There is an attempt to use some topic-specific vocabulary, such as 'friendly environment' and 'teamwork,' but the range is not broad enough to demonstrate flexibility. To improve, try to incorporate more academic collocations and synonyms to avoid repeating basic terms like 'good' or 'hard.'

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. Most of your sentences are grammatically accurate, and errors are infrequent enough that they do not impede communication. However, the range of structures is somewhat limited; you rely heavily on simple subject-verb-object patterns. There are occasional minor errors, such as 'make less bad mistakes' (should be 'make fewer mistakes') and 'discuss both side' (should be 'both sides'). To achieve a higher score, focus on incorporating a wider variety of complex sentence forms, such as conditional clauses or relative clauses, while maintaining your current level of accuracy.

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

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