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)

People then to affirm to the fact that competition in work place , school and daily activities should be encouraged, while others think cooperation is more important. i will like to support this motion because generally life is a race and rewards the people that stand out additionally, competition helps to maximize peoples potential which might never have manifested if cooperation was encouraged.

Although people might propose that cooperation encourage team work and enhance unity in the society. However, in real life everybody cannot be in the same position, while others will be leaders, some other people will have to the followers and the people that can be made leaders are people of exceptional skill which is revealed through competition. statistics shown by a final year student in university of Lagos states that 85 percent of people that end up being leaders where smart people in their classes while they where in school.

Additionally competition helps to bring out intrinsic characteristics in people. The urge to out perform their mates will make people to do their best. An attribute which might not come to life if people were to cooperate together. A survey that shows the rate out which people performed if a price was attached in Friesland campion in Lagos Nigeria indicates that 70 percent of people performed more when their is a price tag compared to when their is no price attached to it.

in Conclusion healthy competition brings out the best in people and helps in stratification of people in different works of life. Although cooperation enhance team work and unity, i believe advantages of competition far out ways its disadvantages and should be encouraged in an healthy way.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the views in favour of competition and those in favour of cooperation, while also providing a clear personal opinion. The writer's position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas suffers from some over-generalisation and reliance on unsubstantiated statistical claims, such as the cited figures from a university student in Lagos or a survey from Friesland Campina. While the arguments presented are relevant to the topic, such as the idea that competition brings out intrinsic characteristics and helps with societal stratification, the supporting evidence lacks academic rigour. Nevertheless, the core requirements of Task 2 are met, earning a band score of 6.0 according to the descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is divided into four paragraphs, which provides a logical overall arrangement. The writer attempts to sequence ideas logically, moving from an introduction to arguments supporting competition, followed by a consideration of cooperation, and ending with a conclusion. However, cohesion is frequently faulty and mechanical. For instance, the transition 'Although people might propose that cooperation encourage team work and enhance unity in the society. However, in real life...' displays a major fragment error and inappropriate transitional phrasing. Furthermore, referencing and paragraphing transitions are somewhat weak, such as starting consecutive body paragraphs with 'Additionally'. Therefore, the text aligns most closely with Band 5 descriptors due to inadequate and sometimes inaccurate cohesive devices.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'intrinsic characteristics', 'stratification', and 'manifested'. However, there are numerous lexical and spelling errors that detract from the writing, including 'People then to affirm' instead of 'tend', 'work place' instead of 'workplace', 'price' instead of 'prize', and 'out which' instead of 'to which'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are noticeable and demonstrate a lack of precision. The use of 'price' instead of 'prize' occurs repeatedly. Consequently, the lexical resource is characteristic of a Band 5 performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical accuracy is a significant weak point. There are numerous punctuation, capitalisation, and grammatical errors throughout the text, such as the missing capitalisation for 'i' and 'university of Lagos', subject-verb agreement errors ('cooperation encourage', 'there is a price', 'there is no price'), and incorrect preposition usage ('in work place', 'in healthy way'). Additionally, sentence boundary errors occur, such as fragmenting dependent clauses with full stops. Because frequent errors cause occasional difficulty for the reader and simple structures are more reliably controlled than complex ones, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate.

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