Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-05

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 4.0)

The given line chart compares the information about five different activities in a social centre located in Melbourne, Australia for the period 2000 to 2020.

Overall, the film club took the highest number of participants throughout the period, while table tennis experienced the most significant growth in comparison with other four sections. In contrast, amateur dramatics decreased very sharply, and in 2015 it became the least popular activity by the end of the period.

In 2000, around 64 people attended the film club, and remained stable until a slight decrease to approximately 60 in 2010. But it quickly recovered to about 64 in 2015 and marginally rose to 66 at the end. The number of participants in martial arts changed slightly over the year, varying between 31 and 36 people before finishing at about 33 in 2020.

Table tennis, however, showed good growth, starting at 16 participants in 2000, the line rose slightly to over 19 in 2010 before growing dramatically to about 51 by 2020. Meanwhile, amateur dramatics fell significantly starting from 25 participants to just 3 over the same period. In contrast, Musical performances, which had 0 participants until 2005, rose gradually until finishing at about 16 by 2020.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for an essay discussing the merits of competition versus cooperation, but the student has written a report describing a line chart about a social centre. Because the response does not address the task prompt at all, it fails to meet the requirements of Task 2. Furthermore, the response is significantly under the 250-word minimum, which further impacts the score. To improve, the student must carefully read the prompt and ensure they are writing an argumentative essay rather than a data description.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is coherent in its own right as a report, with clear paragraphing and logical sequencing of data points. It uses cohesive devices such as 'In contrast', 'Meanwhile', and 'however' effectively to transition between different trends. However, because the content is entirely irrelevant to the actual task prompt, the coherence is applied to the wrong subject matter. If this were a Task 1 report, it would be well-structured, but within the context of the requested essay, it does not demonstrate the ability to organize an argumentative response.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is appropriate for describing trends and data, such as 'experienced the most significant growth', 'decreased very sharply', and 'marginally rose'. The range is sufficient to describe the chart accurately. However, since the task required an essay on social philosophy, the vocabulary is not relevant to the prompt. The student demonstrates a good command of descriptive language, but it is misapplied here.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The grammar is generally accurate with a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. Examples such as 'The number of participants in martial arts changed slightly over the year, varying between 31 and 36 people' show good control of participial phrases. There are very few grammatical errors, and the punctuation is handled well. The level of accuracy is quite high, though the lack of relevance to the task prompt prevents a higher score.

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.