Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-09

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)

In recent years, competition has grown drastically in aspects like school, university and work. While some people believe that having competition academically, professionally and personally is a beneficial thing, others feel that instead of competing against each other, people should rather try being cooperative.

On the one hand, there are several reasons why competition can be considered beneficial in different areas of life because it motivates individuals to work harder, which in return improves their performance. Competition helps the people to achieve their personal set goals, for instance, a student competing against his peers for higher grades in class.

On the other hand, cooperation can be equally essential part of our daily life as working together often helps in achieving better outcomes. Individuals who work together for same goals share their thoughts and ideas which helps in better results, furthermore, cooperation comes handy while working for a group project or it helps the people to work for common goals. For example, a bunch of students working for their group presentation or a team working with a common goal which is to increase the sales of the product.

In my opinion, although healthy competition can help in achieving one’s goals, cooperation works better in the long term. It helps people gain certain skill sets such as, cooperation encourages the spirit of team work, it makes an individual more disciplined for his work or study.

In conclusion, both competition and cooperation have their own advantages, but I believe cooperation shall be given greater importance than competition because it promotes teamwork and helps people to work for common goals.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both competition and cooperation before providing a clear personal opinion. The ideas are relevant, but they are somewhat under-developed. For instance, the explanation of why competition is beneficial is quite brief, and the examples provided are generic. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your arguments with more specific analysis or deeper reasoning. While your position is clear throughout, the development of the supporting points lacks the depth required for a higher score. The conclusion effectively summarizes your stance, but the overall essay would benefit from more detailed exploration of the implications of both concepts.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand,' 'On the other hand,' and 'In conclusion' to signal the structure. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes a bit mechanical. For example, the transition 'furthermore, cooperation comes handy' feels slightly abrupt. Additionally, the use of referencing could be more precise to improve the flow of ideas. Paragraphing is used appropriately, and each paragraph has a central topic, which helps the reader follow your argument without difficulty.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'drastically,' 'beneficial,' and 'disciplined.' However, the vocabulary is somewhat repetitive and lacks the sophistication needed for a higher band. There are some minor collocation issues, such as 'cooperation comes handy' (should be 'comes in handy') and 'essential part of our daily life' (missing an article). To improve, try to incorporate more precise academic collocations and less common lexical items to express your ideas with greater nuance and variety.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While your meaning is always clear, there are frequent minor errors in grammar and punctuation. For example, 'helps the people to achieve' is slightly unnatural, and there are missing articles throughout the text (e.g., 'essential part of our daily life'). You also have some comma splices and run-on sentences, such as 'cooperation encourages the spirit of team work, it makes an individual more disciplined.' Improving your control over complex sentence structures and ensuring subject-verb agreement and article usage will help elevate your score.

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