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)

There has been an ongoing debate whether compeition is a good thing or not. Some individuals believe that competition is necessary in every aspects of life, whereas others argue that we should try to cooperate each other. This essay will discuss both perspectives before presenting my opinion.

On the one hand, people who are in favor of competition among students, colleagues and common people.This is primarily because it encourages people to improve their work by looking at someone better than them. In addition to this, it also helps to stay motivated and build a wining mentality, especially among students. For instances, students in universities need to work hard to stay in race, otherwise thier class mate get the placement. Therefore, it is often claimed that the best motivation for any person is when they begin to look into someone else lifestyle.

On the another hand, critics contend that competition make people arrogant. This viewpoint supported by the fact that in every field everyone is busy to drag other person down. Moreover, at work many people are spreading false information about their colleagues and always target weak people. For example, a manager always try to ignore the best talents in order to stay as manager in any organization.

In conclusion, while both views have thier own merits, I believe cooperate more, rather than competing against each other as it is more practical and beneficial in the long run.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation and provides a clear personal opinion in the conclusion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive, particularly in the body paragraphs where points about motivation and workplace toxicity are stated simply without deep elaboration. Furthermore, the response suffers from a significant drawback in length, containing only 237 words against the mandatory minimum of 250 words. This under-length issue directly impacts the fullness of task completion and prevents the score from reaching higher bands. Looking at specific examples, the second body paragraph relies on a vague illustration about university students and classmates getting placements, which is underdeveloped. Consequently, the task achievement is assessed at Band 5.0 due to the under-length penalty and limited ideational development.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a recognizable overall structure with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing an attempt at a logical flow. However, paragraphing and cohesive devices are inconsistently managed. For instance, the second body paragraph opens awkwardly with a sentence fragment ('people who are in favor of competition among students, colleagues and common people.') that lacks a main verb and is disconnected from the following sentence ('This is primarily because...'). Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or misused, such as 'On the another hand' and 'thier' spelling errors in linking phrases. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical progression between ideas stumbles due to grammatical disruptions. Overall, the organizational framework qualifies for a Band 5.5, showing some basic coherence alongside mechanical or faulty cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and topic-related terms such as 'perspective', 'arrogant', 'colleagues', and 'practical'. However, the lexical control is marred by frequent spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text. Examples include 'compeition' instead of competition, 'aspects' instead of aspect, 'wining' instead of winning, 'Instances' instead of instance, 'thier' instead of their, and 'cooperate' used grammatically incorrectly in the conclusion ('I believe cooperate more'). While communication is generally maintained and the vocabulary is sufficient to convey basic meanings, the density of spelling and morphological inaccuracies restricts the score to Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional or dependent clauses ('while both views have thier own merits, I believe...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors that occasionally impede the flow of reading. Notable issues include sentence fragments ('On the one hand, people who are in favor of competition among students, colleagues and common people.'), missing prepositions or incorrect verb complements ('cooperate each other' instead of cooperate with each other, 'busy to drag' instead of busy dragging), and subject-verb agreement errors ('competition make' instead of competition makes, 'a manager always try'). Because complex structures are frequently faulty and errors are recurrent throughout the essay, the performance aligns best with Band 5.0 descriptors.

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