Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

Some people believe that competition in the workplace, at school, and in everyday life is more beneficial, while other argue that prople should coperate more rather than bweing in a competition with each other. Although, competition can motivate each individuals to perform well. I believe that copperation is more important than competion to achieve long-term sucess, and maintaining healthy relationship.

On the one hand, competition can have several possitive outcomes. It encourages a person to work harder, and keep motivated as well. For example, students who are always in a competition with each other always do their work regularly, and it will also improve their academic performance. Eventually, they will get high grades. When competition remains fair and constructive, it can benefits a lot of people. Employs will perform much better, and this will make them more productive as well. Moreover, hight competition will bring outstanding people in different fields, like media, high tech companies, etc. People will eager to learn more skills to secure these opportunities.

Coperation will bring long-term sucess that competition cannot offer. When prople work together, they can share their knowledge, their skills, and ideas as well. For exmaple, Many people from different fields enroll in an intenration competition, if they work together, then the probability of winning will be more than 90%. Cooperation gives the opportunity to maintain healthy relationship with each other, because people learn to support, and trust one another. On the other side, competition can sometimes cause jealousy, stress, and hate as well, particularly when individuals become more concerned about defeating others than achieving their own goals.

In my opinion, competition and cooperation both plays an important role in our society, but cooperation tends to create a friendly environment. To conclude, competition can motivate individuals to improve their performance and prepare them for future challenges. However, cooperation promotes teamwork, stronger relationships, and collective success. For these reasons, I believe that a balance between the two is the most beneficial approach.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the views that competition is beneficial and that cooperation should be prioritized, while also providing a clear personal opinion. The position is maintained throughout the response. Ideas are generally extended and supported, such as when discussing how students benefit from fair academic competition and how teamwork yields higher success in group scenarios. However, some arguments tend to over-generalize slightly, and vocabulary limitations prevent deeper exploration of the ideas. Overall, the task is successfully addressed, aligning well with the Band 6.5 or Band 7 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure. Introduction and conclusion paragraphs are present, and body paragraphs clearly delineate the two opposing views. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'On the one hand', 'Moreover', and 'In my opinion'. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, as seen in minor awkward transitions and occasional referencing issues. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, but the flow could be smoother and more sophisticated to reach a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'constructive', 'collective success', and 'outstanding people'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('prople' for people, 'coperate' for cooperate, 'bweing', 'posnative', 'Coperation', 'intenration', 'plays') and word-choice inaccuracies ('People will eager', 'benefits a lot of people' instead of benefit). These errors reflect a Band 6 level, where vocabulary is generally adequate to convey meaning, but spelling and morphological slips are frequent enough to detract from precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response includes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses ('students who are always in a competition with each other...'). However, there are recurrent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('competition and cooperation both plays'), missing articles, and awkward phrasing ('Each individuals'). Punctuation is mostly functional. Because the errors occur regularly alongside complex structures without completely impeding communication, the writing fits the Band 6 descriptor well.

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