Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-22

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)

Whether we should constantly strive to outdone another or focus on working together across our personal and professional lives is a topic of frequent debate. While a bit of healthy competition helps us to push to our boundaries, I firmly believe the learning to cooperate yields far greater, more lasting benefits for both individual and society as a both.

Its easy to see why people champion in the idea of competition. When we face a tough rivals whether in school or in workplace it helps us to push ourselves to our limits and helps us to rais the bar and see what we are actually capable of. For example, Students aiming to score good marks than their friends and businesses trying to overcome their rivals are naturally motivated to pull out all the stops, innovating and sharpening their skills on the process. Without this it can be easy for all to fall into a rut, settling a mediocrity rather than aiming for real progess.

That said, the power of collaboration in far more profound. When people pool their resources and share ideas they can tackle complex, real-world problems that no single person could ever solve on their own. For instance, the development of global medical vaccines;scientist worldwide shared research and combined expertise to achieve result in record time.

In my opinion, although a competitive spirit can occasionally prompt people to push the envelope, a genuine cooperation is what truly drives human progress forward. By joining forces, we can accomplish far more meaningful goals while building a healthier, more supportive community.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both views on competition versus cooperation and clearly stating a personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are adequately extended and supported with relevant examples, such as the development of global medical vaccines. However, some arguments, such as the mention of students and businesses, tend to over-generalize slightly without deeper expansion. Overall, the task is successfully and clearly accomplished, meeting the Band 7 standards for task response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay presents a clear logical organization and progression throughout. It is divided into four appropriate paragraphs, starting with an introduction, moving to body paragraphs exploring competition and collaboration respectively, and concluding with a personal stance. Cohesive devices such as 'That said', 'For instance', and 'In my opinion' are used effectively to guide the reader through the arguments. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, maintaining a coherent overall arrangement that clearly connects ideas from sentence to sentence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses a sufficient range of vocabulary with some flexibility and precision, such as 'frequent debate', 'tough rivals', and 'push the envelope'. There are, however, a few noticeable lexical and word-form errors, including 'outdone another' instead of 'outdo one another', 'learning to cooperate' instead of 'learning that cooperation', 'champion in the idea' instead of 'champion the idea', and 'rais the bar' with a spelling error. Despite these occasional inaccuracies, the vocabulary is adequate for the task and communication is never impeded.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like conditional clauses and relative clauses effectively. There are several grammatical errors present, such as 'Its easy' instead of 'It's easy', 'a tough rivals' instead of 'tough rivals', 'sharpening their skills on the process' instead of 'in the process', and 'a genuine cooperation' where 'cooperation' is uncountable. However, these errors are non-systematic and rarely impede communication, allowing the reader to follow the arguments smoothly, fitting the Band 6 profile well.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.