Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-18

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 6.5)

Few individuals believe that competition at workplace, in academic institution and in day-to-day life should be encouraged, while others believe that cooperating is significantly better than competing. In my opinion, competition is good for individuals to improve productivity, however, excessive competition might have harmful effects on people.

On the one hand, competition at school inculcates childrens with a sense of positive fighting mindset, which subsequently makes them motivated and they tend to perform better in domains like academic, culture and arts. The corporate workplace culture requires individuals to compete at every level, which in turn provides them with job security. For example, working professionals in MNCs emphasizes on winning the employee of the month award as it awards them with a sense of victory, accomplishment and satisfaction. Moreover, people in everday life compare themselves with their neighbours and relatives to feel proud.

On the other hand, critics argue that too much competition can have negative consequences and we should focus more on cooperating than competing. Cooperating with other people increases task achievement and reduces the chances of error as you work in as a team. For example, a tedious excel sheet arrangement task would be finished quickly if done as a team work and human errors are significantly reduced as well. Furthermore, competition can lead to depression for some individuals as they get anxious when someone outperforms them. Therefore, competition should be reduced and cooperation must be encouraged among individuals.

In conclusion, competition can be both helpful and harmful for people. Striking a proper balance between the two is important to maximise the benefits and reduce the harmful effects. With proper guidance and limited use, it can serve as an important tool for productivity and motivation while avoiding the harmful effects of depression and error.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the view that competition is beneficial and the view that cooperation should be prioritised, while also stating a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are extended and supported with relevant examples, such as corporate workplace culture and team tasks like arranging an excel sheet. However, some arguments tend to over-generalize slightly, such as claiming that competition in everyday life involves comparing oneself with neighbours to feel proud, which places the response comfortably at Band 7.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay displays a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. The response is divided into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, two main body paragraphs discussing opposing views, and a concluding summary. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to connect ideas, such as "On the one hand," "On the other hand," and "Furthermore." However, there are minor referencing and cohesion glitches, such as "inculcates childrens with" (lexical/grammatical slip) and "you work in as a team" which slightly disrupt the natural flow, aligning the text with a Band 6.5 or solid 7.0 structure.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The writer demonstrates an adequate to sufficient range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as "productivity," "inculcates," "accomplishment," and "outperforms." However, there are some noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation. For example, the phrase "inculcates childrens with a sense of positive fighting mindset" contains a grammatical collocation error, and "everday life" contains a spelling mistake. Despite these minor flaws, communication is never impeded, fitting the Band 6.0 descriptors well.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response incorporates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional-like reasoning and relative clauses, such as "Few individuals believe that competition at workplace... while others believe that cooperating is significantly better." There are several grammatical errors present throughout the text, including article omissions ("at workplace", "in academic institution", "as a team work") and pluralisation errors ("childrens"). While these errors persist, they are non-systematic and do not impede communication, supporting a Band 6 score.

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