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 todays world people are involved in different aspects of life some of which are work and life. Some people believe that competition at both work and school in daily life is a good thing, while others oppose this notion and think that cooperation at work and school is much better than competition against fellows. I will discuss both views along with my view in the favour of the point that healty competition at work and school enhances the way of life and set higher and higher targets to acheive.

On the one hand, competition in whatever aspect of life creates the urge to do better than others. At work, competition among peers may help to attract the company more customers. Moreover, people work harder than before and have the better opportunity to show their talent. In schools, competition among students could help in improving grade and interest in studies. Furthermore, competition can encourage people to develop new skills and set higher goals. It can also change the enviroment from a broing to an interesting and playful enviroment.

On the other hand, cooperation is an option. It could be beneficial for sharing talent, knowledge, skills, ideas and as well as helping those with difficulties in both school and at work. This would significantly reduce peer pressure. This would not affect people mental health. Cooperation would also help complete task quicker rather than doing it all alone by self wheather at school or at work. This would create a more positive workplace and increase the will to continue. Similarly, students can help each other in difficult subjects and increase overall grades. This would help people to strengthen their talent.

In conclusion, both cooperation and competition have their advantage and disadvantages to school and to work. While competition may cause stress and peer pressure, it remains as an important aspect of human life. I believe that healthy competition can motivate people to improve their skills, achieve higher goals and perform better in their studies and careers.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the view that competition is beneficial and the view that cooperation is preferable, while also clearly stating their own opinion in the introduction and conclusion. The ideas are generally relevant and extended, such as noting how competition encourages skill development and how cooperation reduces peer pressure. However, some arguments tend to over-generalize and lack deeper specific examples to fully develop the positions. For instance, the point that competition helps attract more customers at work is introduced without concrete elaboration. Overall, the response meets the core requirements of Task Achievement at a solid level, demonstrating a clear position and addressing both sides adequately.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a clear overall progression and is logically organized into four distinct paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs addressing opposing views, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion' are used to signpost the structure of the essay. However, some mechanical errors in referencing and cohesion occur, such as the awkward transition 'and as well as helping' in the third paragraph. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, but the logical flow within paragraphs occasionally feels slightly repetitive or disjointed, particularly in the listing of cooperation benefits. Overall, the organizational structure is sound and supports clear readability.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common items and phrases such as 'peer pressure', 'mental health', and 'strengthen their talent'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors that detract from precision, such as 'todays' instead of 'today's', 'healty' instead of 'healthy', 'acheive' instead of 'achieve', 'enviroment' instead of 'environment', 'broing' instead of 'boring', and 'wheather' instead of 'whether'. While these errors do not severely impede overall communication, they reflect a lack of careful proofreading and limit the score. The writer uses sufficient vocabulary to convey their arguments, but precision and spelling consistency need improvement.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses, such as 'Some people believe that competition at both work and school in daily life is a good thing, while others oppose this notion...' However, grammatical accuracy is undermined by recurring errors, particularly missing articles ('attract the company more customers'), subject-verb agreement issues, and punctuation slips. For example, 'This would not affect people mental health' lacks the possessive apostrophe in 'people's', and 'have the better opportunity' uses an unnecessary definite article. Although these errors rarely impede communication, the frequency of basic grammatical slips prevents the essay from reaching higher bands where error-free sentences must be more dominant.

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