Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

In recent years, competition at works, schools and in daily life become widely discussed issue. Some people argue that healthy competition motivates people to work more positively and productive. While there are arguments on both sides, I strongly agree with collaborations and team work comparative rivalries.

The primary reason why I agree with cooperation and teamwork is mutual support and less mental pressure. For example, cooperation encourage good relationships and promote social harmony. As a result, people become more motivated and work towards a common goal that helps economy and work environment peaceful and more productive.

Furthermore, collaboration and teamwork enable individuals to provide an incentive to succeed.

Another important reason is it encourage people to push themselves beyond their limits. In other words it enhance your inner skills and also in schools students feel more motivated and resilient. Because excessive competition can create unnecessary pressure and undermine relationships among peers and colleagues. It also affects peace and encourage students in schools for unhealthy rivalries that may destroy their productivity and success.

In conclusion, I strongly agree with foster cooperations. This is primarily because of safe and smooth environment. Therefore, it promote sense of belongings and build trust and release excessive mental pressure.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses both views regarding competition and cooperation and takes a clear position in favour of cooperation. However, the ideas are somewhat repetitive and lack deep extension. Furthermore, the length requirement is not met, as the response contains only 203 words against the minimum of 250 words. This under-length impacts the overall development of ideas, restricting the task achievement score to a Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response has an identifiable introduction and conclusion, and paragraphs are used. However, the organization lacks smooth progression and logical links between some sentences. Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or misused, such as starting multiple paragraphs with repetitive structures like 'The primary reason' and 'Another important reason'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, which affects the overall readability. Overall, coherence aligns with a Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'resilient', 'unhealthy rivalries', and 'social harmony'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'competition at works' instead of 'work', and 'comparative rivalries'. Spelling and grammatical forms of words also show occasional lapses. The vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, fitting the Band 5.5 descriptor.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but attempts at complex sentences frequently contain errors, such as 'competition... become widely discussed issue' and 'cooperation encourage'. Punctuation and subject-verb agreement errors are recurrent throughout the text. While meaning can mostly be discerned, the density of grammatical errors places this text firmly at a Band 5.0.

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