Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-10

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 6.5)

In today's modern era, a significant amount of competition can be seen in every aspect of life from academics to work place. This competitive environment is crucial for development of an individual, as it induces stress and forces us to work under pressure. On the other hand, many people think that cooperating each other and supporting each other leads to more fruitful outcomes. In my view, these an environment where both competition and cooperation exists creates greater impact.

There are several other aspects which possess competitive nature, due to high demand, whether it is a job vacancy, getting an admission in reputed college or university for better educational opportunities. This kind of competition forces people to put more effort in there work, studies to beat the competition and get the desired results. Furthermore, it people to work under stressed conditions and get better results. But, these stressful and anxious surrounding can lead to several health related concerns if a person is exposed to such conditions for longer duration of time.

However, there are several beneficial factors of cooperative nature among people, as an individual gets help from there peers and colleagues, and they can get advantage of working together and supporting each other. Moreover, this kind of environment can be helpful for stability of mental and emotional health. Teammates from a Formula 1 team are the best example of creating competition and supporting each other at the same time, where they can help each other to get better outcome from other teams, while competition for the First place at the same time.

Therefore, it can be concluded that, having a cooperative environment have more advantages, as it encourages supportive nature among people and also it develops respect among people, but at the same time, exposure to competitive environment is also necessary for gaining success.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.0
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation and providing a personal opinion. The position is clear throughout, particularly in the introduction and conclusion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding the health risks of competition is mentioned but not fully explored, and the Formula 1 example, while relevant, could have been more explicitly linked to the broader societal context. To reach a higher band, ensure that each supporting point is fully expanded with more detailed reasoning or illustrative evidence to demonstrate a deeper engagement with the topic.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized with clear paragraphing. Each paragraph has a central theme, and the progression of ideas is generally easy to follow. Cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore', 'However', and 'Therefore' are used to link sentences and paragraphs. However, there are some instances where the flow is slightly mechanical, and some referencing is imprecise, such as 'these an environment' in the introduction. The use of cohesive devices is sufficient, but more variety and more sophisticated transitions would improve the overall flow and help the essay reach the next band level.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There is an attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'competitive environment', 'fruitful outcomes', and 'stability of mental and emotional health'. However, there are some errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'cooperating each other' (should be 'cooperating with each other') and 'possess competitive nature' (should be 'are competitive in nature'). The range is sufficient for the task, but the lack of more precise or sophisticated vocabulary prevents a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the work place', 'the First place'), prepositions, and subject-verb agreement ('having a cooperative environment have'). Additionally, there are minor punctuation and phrasing issues, such as 'it people to work' which appears to be a missing verb. While these errors do not impede communication, they are persistent enough to prevent the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy would be highly beneficial.

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

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