Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Some individuals are of the notion that competition at work ,school and in daily life is good.Others shun this view, they believe that people should collaborate more and drop competition as it may negatively affect progress. I believe whenever people find themselves having a common goal it is more beneficial to work as a team than working individually and treat everything as competition.

Fistly, shared spaces like school and workplaces should be approached with care and wisdom. If people are always out to outshine each other,it may create toxic environments and may pepertuate conflicts.For instance a certain school planned a cultural awareness event and 3 departments namely fundraising,entertainment and decor were all needed to work together to make the event a success,but because of lack of teamwork the event flopped and people where blaming each other for the failure.After having a meeting to investigate what caused the flop ,the school later identified that all that was needed was to bring the departments to work together, rather there had been a lot of backstabbing and gossip which ended up in heated arguments and cosequently the event never took place.

If for instance colleagues work as individuals not as a team it may also result in communication breakdown because people will be avoiding to share information in fear of credit theft.When people within the same organisation do not collaborate and share crucial information it may result in less productivity and also delayed progress.It also result in duplication .

Having said that individuals who think competition in workplaces is justified ,argue that working as team may cause other people to take credit that they dont deserve.Some people hide in other peoples work even though they would not have contributed much.

Though this maybe a valid reason for choosing to work individually ,the results that come from teamwork outweigh what you get from competition.Therefore people must work together for significant productivity.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the benefits of competition and the importance of cooperation, while clearly stating a personal position. The introduction establishes a stance in favor of collaboration. The body paragraphs explore both sides: the second and third paragraphs elaborate on the potential negative impacts of excessive competition, such as toxic environments and poor communication, supported by a detailed example about a cultural awareness event. The fourth paragraph acknowledges the opposing view that competition can prevent credit theft. Although some ideas could be extended further, the task is adequately fulfilled with a clear, developed argument throughout, aligning well with the Band 6.5 or 7 descriptor range.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a logical overall arrangement with a clear progression of ideas from introduction to conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, the arguments against competition, the counter-argument, and the final thought. However, cohesion is occasionally faulty or mechanical. For instance, there is a missing space after a comma in several places (e.g., 'work ,school', 'each other,it'), and cohesive devices are sometimes basic or repetitive. Referencing is generally clear, but transitional phrases could be varied more effectively to enhance the flow between sentences and paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'pepertuate' (spelled incorrectly as 'pepertuate'), 'co-sequently', and 'duplication'. While there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors—such as 'Fistly' instead of 'Firstly', 'where blaming' instead of 'were blaming', and 'dont' without an apostrophe—these errors do not impede overall communication. The writer manages to convey precise ideas about workplace dynamics, though greater precision and control over less common vocabulary would be required for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ambitious structures such as conditional sentences ('If people are always out to outshine each other, it may create...'). However, there are frequent punctuation and mechanical errors, including missing spaces after commas, run-on sentences ('Others shun this view, they believe...'), and minor spelling mistakes. While grammatical errors occur across the text, the majority of simple sentences are clear, and the errors rarely impede communication, placing the response solidly in the Band 6 category.

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

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