Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

There is a debate about competition and collaboration. One group supports the belief system of competition and other thought the collaboration is the key in social activities. In my opinion, competition grow a better contestant and fighters societies.

Primarily, we'll discuss the view of collaboration. Modern society strongly supports the cooperation and collaboration among team members, peers and in daily life. They belief cooperation among peoples increase the productivity because it'll be running by more than one brain. This cooperation will develop care and share nature. But my thoughts not agree to this belief system, because cooperation is good at some extent but it will not give you the energy to do something new just go with flow and cooperation will create followers not leaders.

However, Competition will bring fighters or leaders mind in the society. When you work or study in a competitive environment, you do your best to come on the top of the list. Even sometimes we do more than our capability and explore more than our previous knowledge to do best. That's why i believe the competition in society it develops growing nature which boost productivity. And for developments and inventions you need this kind of mindsets not following mindsets. I remember, I wasn't feeling motivated in my graduation because my groupmates are not competitors. They work like team members and assign roles in the class task to every group members. Which i thought not give the opportunity to learn everything to everyone, not to do their best. My style of working was that everyone should make a draft of assignment which give the sense of competition that my work should be the best so it can be approved.

But in competitive mindset low self-esteem or slow learners are ignored at somehow which i thought as a drawback of competition mindset

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both sides of the argument and provides a clear personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While you provide a personal example regarding your graduation, the explanation of why competition is superior to cooperation is slightly repetitive and relies on generalizations. The discussion of the drawbacks of competition is brief and could have been more thoroughly explored to achieve a higher band. To improve, ensure that each paragraph provides a balanced level of detail and that your arguments are supported by more nuanced reasoning rather than just stating that one approach creates 'leaders' and the other 'followers'.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, and there is a clear progression of ideas from the introduction to the conclusion. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Primarily', 'However', and 'That's why', but the flow is occasionally hindered by mechanical transitions and some awkward phrasing. For instance, the transition between the discussion of cooperation and the shift to competition is a bit abrupt. Additionally, the use of referencing is sometimes unclear, which affects the overall readability. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that sentences within paragraphs are more tightly connected would enhance the coherence of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, but it lacks the precision and range required for a higher band. You rely on basic terms like 'good', 'better', and 'best' repeatedly. There are also some issues with word choice and collocation, such as 'care and share nature' and 'fighters societies', which sound unnatural. While you attempt to use some topic-specific vocabulary, the overall range is limited. To improve, focus on learning more sophisticated synonyms and collocations related to the themes of professional and academic environments to express your ideas with greater clarity and impact.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow of reading. Common issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'competition grow', 'groupmates are not competitors' when referring to the past), incorrect verb tenses, and missing articles. For example, 'my thoughts not agree' should be 'my thoughts do not align'. While the meaning is generally clear, these persistent errors in basic grammar and punctuation prevent the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on proofreading for subject-verb agreement and consistent tense usage would be highly beneficial.

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