Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-21
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 5.0)
In this era, everyone feels like life is a race where we have a competition to win that race. Some people think that competition in every aspects of life is important. But others believe that it is better to cooperate, rather than to compete.
Everyone has a different mindset and thinking capability. People think that competition at work or scholl is good. Everything has Pros and Cons. Sometimes it is good to motivate someone to do better in their life or to achieve whatever they want to get in their life. For example, a sports teacher wants his students to win the competition and help their team to grow stronger.
While, I believe that competition anywhere is not good. Every human being has different skills. According to my perspective, competition could made anyone loose their interest. For instance, competition at school could be dangerous. Competition to pass their tests with higher grades made pupils uncomfortable. They will just read all modules to pass their tests and will not focus to learn something new. In this way, students lose their interest in study. Sometimes competition made students afraid of getting lower grades and force them to commit suicide.
To wrap it up, In my opinion, competion is not good whether at work or any educational place. I believe to cooperate with others made their life easier rather than competing against each other.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both views regarding competition and cooperation, and the writer provides a clear personal opinion that competition is generally negative. However, the length requirement is not met, as the response contains only 231 words against the minimum of 250 words. This under-length impacts the overall development of ideas. While the prompt asks to discuss both views and give an opinion, the arguments presented—such as the mention of suicide regarding school competition—are somewhat extreme and lack balanced development. The ideas are relevant but remain somewhat limited and under-developed due to the brevity of the essay. Consequently, the task achievement is constrained to a band 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay displays a basic overall organization with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a concluding sentence. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes disjointed. Cohesive devices are used, but they are occasionally mechanical or inaccurate, such as 'While, I believe...' and 'To wrap it up, In my opinion...'. Paragraphing is attempted, but paragraph three is overly dense and combines multiple distinct points. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical links between sentences can be abrupt. Overall, the structural framework is sufficient to make the writing understandable, but cohesion suffers from frequent mechanical errors, aligning with the band 5.0 descriptor.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive, featuring phrases like 'life is a race', 'pros and cons', and 'different skills'. There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'competition could made anyone loose their interest' (where 'loose' is misspelled for 'lose' and 'made' should be 'make') and 'educational place'. The range of vocabulary is limited to everyday terms, and attempts at less common items are either inaccurate or inappropriate. While the meaning is mostly clear despite the errors, the vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, placing it firmly at band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but many of the complex forms contain significant errors. There are frequent grammatical mistakes throughout the text, such as 'in every aspects' (pluralization error), 'competition could made anyone loose' (tense and spelling errors), and 'I believe to cooperate with others made their life easier' (faulty structure). Punctuation and article usage also show persistent flaws. These frequent errors can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, though they do not completely impede overall communication. This performance fits the band 5.0 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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