Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-08

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)

It is often argued that the competition at work, at school and in daily life is a good thing. Whereas, others believe that we cooperation is more beneficial instead of competing against each other.

Talking about the competition in life, it helps people to grow more in every field of life. A drive to compete is necessary for human to achieve certain goals. We can not stay stationary. Thinking about someone, who is better then us makes work harder. Talking about schools or offices everyone is working on their own pace, but they are being motivated by each other in a way to improve themselves. It is natural that we compete someone, who is better then us. In result we work harder and improve ourselves.

On the other hand, cooperation is a non debate able thing. It helps to boost everything, either it is large company, corporate office or class results. Everyone is getting benefits from each other. There are a lot of examples of industrial success based on cooperation. Even now a days approximately every good industry or a company has there own infrastructure in which several departments works by cooperating with each other. It helps to boost the industry, but at which level?. There must some other competitor industry, that drives them to work hard and grow.

In my opinion, if were talking about an ideal world, both opinions are correct individual. But in current constantly growing and evolving world relying on just a single view would not be a perfect approach. To get optimum results, we must consider both ideas in our daily life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The essay addresses both sides of the argument and provides a clear personal opinion in the conclusion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat superficial. For instance, the explanation of why competition is beneficial is repetitive, focusing mainly on the idea of 'working harder' without exploring deeper psychological or societal impacts. Similarly, the section on cooperation mentions industrial success but lacks specific, concrete examples to support the claim. While the prompt is addressed, the ideas would benefit from more depth and specific illustration to reach a higher band. The position is consistent, but the supporting arguments remain at a general level throughout the response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. There is an attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'On the other hand' and 'In my opinion,' which helps the flow. However, some transitions are awkward or mechanical, such as 'Talking about the competition in life' and 'Talking about schools or offices.' Additionally, the referencing is occasionally unclear, and the connection between sentences within paragraphs could be smoother. The use of punctuation is inconsistent, which occasionally disrupts the flow of ideas. Overall, the progression is logical, but the management of cohesive devices needs more precision.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the student to express their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'stationary' and 'infrastructure,' but these are sometimes used inaccurately or in contexts that feel slightly unnatural. There are also several word-choice errors, such as 'non debate able' (non-debatable) and 'compete someone' (compete with someone). While the range is sufficient to communicate the main points, the lack of precision and occasional errors in collocation prevent the essay from reaching a higher band. More variety in academic vocabulary would be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'we cooperation is' instead of 'we believe cooperation is,' and 'there own infrastructure' instead of 'their own infrastructure.' Subject-verb agreement and article usage are also inconsistent. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to be noticeable. The student demonstrates an ability to construct complex sentences, but the control over these structures is not consistent, leading to a reliance on simpler, sometimes flawed, phrasing.

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