Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-12
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 5.0)
Competition is healthy activity to make people more vigilant, hard working and smart while a good citizen also help other in their daily work. Competition at school, work and in daily life is important. Cooperation has its own advantages.
The main advantage of competition is people try to do their best to to be above from other. This necessarily not only happens at work place but also in our daily lives. When students compete with each other at school in their curriculum and co-curriculum activities, it makes them more critical thinker. In addition they find various smart ways to win. For instance, when students compete with other, they hard work in their studies and try to catches the 1st position. So they get better in their studies.
Cooperation, on the other hand has its own advantages. People help each other in their daily lives and they make possible to progress together. Cooperation is the key to success. Helping and cooperating with other build a strong and positive environment. For example, when a person help other, it causes positive impact on their mind and they try to help others. In the way long chain of helping hands develop and together they build calm and stress free atmosphere. This is beneficial for the country as a whole.
In my opinion, cooperation is more helpful then competition. It is crucial to build a society that is more positive and helpful. people cooperate each other and it makes them depressed.
In conclusion, A healthy competition has its own advantages which makes people more confident and hardworking. In contrast the cooperation is preferable as it gives people more chances to be a good citizen of the society
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation, and the writer provides a clear personal opinion in the body and conclusion. The ideas, however, are rather repetitive and under-developed, relying on general statements like 'people try to do their best to to be above from other' without fully exploring the nuances of each viewpoint. While the overall stance is clear—that cooperation is more beneficial—the supporting arguments lack depth and specific examples from broader knowledge, relying instead on vague generalisations. This places the performance firmly at Band 5.0, as the task is addressed, but the development of ideas remains limited.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay is divided into distinct paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs discussing each view, a personal opinion paragraph, and a conclusion. However, the logical progression is frequently disrupted by abrupt transitions and confusing contradictions, such as the concluding sentence of the opinion paragraph: 'people cooperate each other and it makes them depressed,' which contradicts the positive stance on cooperation established earlier. Cohesive devices are used mechanically and often inaccurately ('In the way long chain of helping hands develop'). Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the overall flow lacks the smooth progression required for higher bands, corresponding to a Band 5.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive, with frequent reliance on words like 'competition,' 'cooperation,' and 'advantages.' There are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'healthy activity' instead of 'a healthy activity' and 'tries to catches the 1st position.' Attempts to use less common vocabulary are minimal and often marred by inaccuracy, such as 'critical thinker' used without proper pluralisation or articles. While the meaning is usually retrievable, these frequent lexical inaccuracies and limited range restrict the score to a Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, consisting mostly of simple and basic complex sentences. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing articles ('at work place', 'in daily life'), incorrect verb forms ('people try to do their best to to be above from other', 'they hard work'), and preposition errors ('cooperate each other'). Punctuation and capitalisation errors are also present (e.g., lowercase 'people' at the start of a sentence). These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and demonstrate weak control over complex structures, aligning with Band 5.0 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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