Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-17

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 today's world the things in every fields are getting more advance due to which competition between the individuals are increasing over the time. In this situation some of the people think that the competition in schools or at work place is a good thing while on the other hand, som individual some think that insted of competing with others they should try to cooperate. In this essay i will dicuss both the views followed by the examples and my opinion.

Due to the sudden advancements in terms of education and in the field of work followed by some in daily routine some number of the individuals think that competition is a good thing. They believe that it helps in development of the character of the individual who compete themselves with others. For instance, in my gym i have seen many of the people compare their dressing with others in order to improve their own style. In addition, they also think that it helps them to improve their performance. They think that competition will force the indivituals to work hard in order to improve themselves in their own respective fields. For example, when i visited my uncles office i noticed one thig that there is huge compitition between employees due to which it motivated them to work more.

However, on the other hand some individuals think that insted of competition they should cooperate more

because they think that it might make them feel week which might lead to the stages like depression so in this case cooperating could help. For instance, my friend rohit faced this situation in school hes was not good at study as the compitition was high it mad him feel week so his mother told me that school should remove this ranking system.

In my view, both the groups of individuals are correct at their own places as compitition and cooperation is equally important in every aspect of the life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the view that competition is beneficial and the alternative view that cooperation is preferable, and the writer provides a clear, albeit brief, personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and relies on basic, over-generalized personal examples rather than fully elaborated arguments. For instance, the example about the gym and matching dressing style is trivial and does not strongly support the broader claim about character development. Similarly, the reference to the writer's uncle's office lacks depth. While the task is addressed and a position is stated, the supporting points remain underdeveloped, which places this response comfortably at Band 5.5 to 6.0. Awarding a Band 6.0 reflects that all parts of the task are addressed, even though the depth of idea extension is basic.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing each view, and concluding with a final stance. Cohesive devices are utilized, such as 'In addition', 'However, on the other hand', and 'For instance', though some are mechanical or repetitive. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. However, referencing and logical progression can be slightly disjointed; for example, the transition between sentences in the second body paragraph feels abrupt. The overall progression is generally clear, but faults in mechanical cohesion and referencing cap this criterion at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate basic ideas about competition and cooperation. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary and phrases (e.g., 'sudden advancements', 'respective fields'), but these are accompanied by frequent spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'fields' instead of 'field', 'som individual some', 'insted', 'dicuss', 'thig', 'compitition', 'indivituals', 'week' instead of 'weak', and 'hes' instead of 'he was'. These lexical errors and frequent misspellings occasionally strain the reader, meaning the performance fits best at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and subordinate structures (e.g., 'due to which competition between the individuals are increasing over the time'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in subject-verb agreement ('competition... are increasing'), missing articles, capitalization errors ('i'), and run-on sentences. Punctuation is also problematic, particularly with comma splices and lack of proper capitalization at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns ('rohit'). While the meaning is generally retrievable despite the high frequency of errors, the grammatical control is limited and firmly aligns with Band 5.0.

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