Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-13

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)

I believe the schooling is the base in the student's life and it plays a very vital and significant role in the upbringing of one. Based on the current schooling practices in my country, the teachers and parents keenly focuses on applying to pressure to students which somehow leads to a competition. Pressure of competition at such young age might be a harmful factor that leads to serious character development problem in students. It is evident thorugh many researches that students who are pressurized for studies are prone to anxiety and stress related issues.

A freindly competition can be a good thing, but if the competition crosses the boundries it can affect an individual's peace of mind and often increases the risks of inferiority complex. With that said, it's crucial to understand that a healhly competition is the one in which you see your self progressing in all aspects. it's important to understand that if a race or competition that is costing your mental peace, and put your health your health at risk isn't worth it. talking in terms of workplace, I believe its favourable if you focus on postitive growth as a team as working in a team takes you far in the longer term.

Based on my personal beleif and experience, I strongly support the idea of cooperating more and focusing on growing as a team or department. I came to realize this in one of my professional expereince where I was the only person working in my department. At that stage everything was pretty new to me and i had no one to compete against which really helped me in attaining the discipline, handeling responsiblities in a smooth manner.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing competition and cooperation in education and the workplace, and the student provides a clear personal opinion in favor of cooperation. However, the development is somewhat limited. The discussion on schooling is heavily focused on the negative aspects of pressure and anxiety, which only partially covers the 'competition as a good thing' view requested by the prompt. Furthermore, the reasoning tends to generalise without sufficient elaboration. For instance, the transition to the workplace is brief, and the personal example provided at the end is anecdotal rather than fully developed to support the central argument. While the task is addressed, the ideas remain somewhat under-developed compared to the expectations for higher bands, placing this submission firmly in the Band 6 category.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a discernible progression of ideas from education to the workplace, culminating in a personal conclusion. Paragraphing is used, though the second paragraph is quite long and encompasses multiple shifts in focus, from friendly competition to mental health and finally to the workplace. Cohesive devices are used, but they are sometimes mechanical or awkwardly integrated, as seen in expressions like 'With that said' and 'talking in terms of workplace'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly with pronoun usage and abrupt transitions between sentences. While the logic can generally be followed, the structural management of cohesive ties and paragraph unity requires refinement to reach a higher band level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'upbringing', 'inferiority complex', and 'favourable'. However, there are notable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and spelling throughout the text. Examples include 'keenly focuses on applying to pressure' (instead of 'applying pressure'), 'healhly competition' (healthy), 'self progressing' (oneself progressing), 'personal beleif' (belief), and 'handeling responsiblities' (handling responsibilities). While these errors do not severely impede overall communication, their frequency prevents the vocabulary score from reaching Band 7. A greater focus on correct spelling and natural collocations will significantly enhance lexical precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ambition with structures such as 'students who are pressurized for studies are prone to...'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('the schooling is', 'teachers and parents keenly focuses'), missing articles ('at such young age'), and capitalization errors ('it's important'). Additionally, punctuation and sentence boundaries are occasionally problematic, such as run-on constructions like 'it's important to understand that if a race or competition that is costing your mental peace, and put your health your health at risk isn't worth it.' These errors require some effort from the reader to parse, aligning with the Band 5 descriptors.

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

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