Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-20

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 argue that competition as a general concept has great advantages, while others tend to cooperate and have more intimacy in our relationships. The essay will discuss both sides before explaining why I believe that cooperation and helping each other should stay our priority.

On one hand, many people think that competition will increase their opportunities at work and raise their academic grades or even facilitate the available chances in life, for example, the individuals who work in the same place, their moderators encourage them to represent the best all the time and offer rewards or promotions which will assist the work place at the end, but also it will create the spirit of competition, which may lead to reduce the team-work era. The formal learning direction helps in raising the education quality. However, paying attention to academic grades alone might make the students save their information and refuse to help each other in order to reach the first place.

On the other hand, others believe that cooperation has more benefits for society and personal communication, for instance, team-work cooperation could create more thoughts and sharing ideas would open the path for the work to develop more and more. Also the students who help each build healthy relationships and be able to communicate well during different situations.

In my opinion, intimacy and togetheracy should be the priority in our life situations, regardless of the benefits of competition; I believe that team spirit could gain the most desirable results for employees, students and people dealing with each other.

In conclusion, although there are many people encourage competition pointing out its importance in academic results and work improvement and others think cooperation should be tried rather than competing against each other as it assists communication and connection, I still believe in the importance of cooperation and intimacy in our relationships, which give us the purpose of life and encourage helping others who need help.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation and providing a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. The position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and the arguments tend to be repetitive, particularly in the body paragraphs and the conclusion. For instance, the discussion on work competition mentions rewards and promotions but quickly loses focus into run-on clauses without fully exploring the consequences. While the ideas are relevant, they need deeper extension and more precise examples to reach a higher band. Overall, the task is adequately addressed, fitting the criteria for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is divided into clear paragraphs with an introduction, two body paragraphs, a personal opinion paragraph, and a conclusion, showing an overall logical arrangement. Cohesive devices such as 'On one hand', 'On other hand', and 'In conclusion' are used to signpost the structure. However, referencing is sometimes unclear, and cohesion can feel mechanical or run-on due to long, poorly punctuated sentences—for example, the lengthy sentence beginning with '...for example, the individuals who work in the same place...'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, but internal flow is occasionally disrupted by grammatical entanglements, placing this performance firmly at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'facilitate', 'moderators', and 'intimacy'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation errors, such as using 'moderators' instead of 'managers' or 'supervisors', 'reduce the team-work era' instead of 'reduce teamwork', and inventing the non-standard word 'togetheracy'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but lexical inaccuracies restrict the precision of the argument. The range is sufficient to communicate meaning, but the frequent imprecise word choices prevent the response from achieving a Band 7.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though complex structures are frequently affected by faulty phrasing and run-on construction. There are multiple grammatical errors and punctuation lapses, such as comma splices and missing prepositions (e.g., 'help each build healthy relationships' missing 'other'). For instance, the sentence starting with 'On one hand, many people think...' is a massive run-on clause containing multiple independent thoughts strung together with commas. Although these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency means that error-free sentences are not in the majority, which aligns with Band 5.5 descriptors.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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