Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-24

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)

In today's world, there is a lot of competition in daily life. Unfortunately, many people believe that competition at work area, at school and in daily activities help in developing personality whereas, others think that a cooperation is required so that no one feel stress. I totally agree with the both prospectives.

Firstly, competition is a key to achieve success. By competition, one can become more tough and ready to compete in the society. To elaborate, it make an individual more organised, ready to face challenges, give their hundred percent, make them rough and tough, more disciplined to achieve their goals. For example, a person facing competition in their work places leads them to be more disciplined and organised. They become more ambitious and focus on strong areas and weaknesses and work to overcome their weak things. Therefore, competition is a good way for the overall development of individual lives.

Secondly, some believes that cooperation plays a vital role, rather than competing with each other. To explain, there are some people those feel so stressed in competing so to overcome this problem, it is required that there is a cooperation and help them to overcome the fear of participation in the society. To illustrate, there are some individuals those become stressful and feel uncomfortable in dealing in society, there is need of encouragement to do well. Hence, motivation is a way to get succeed.

In conclusion, I agreed with both the views. It depend on person to person whether they required a tough competition or a push to overcome the tension of dealing in the society. So, competition and cooperation together plays a crucial role in developing a strong nation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation views and providing a personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. However, the ideas lack sufficient depth and extension. For instance, the discussion on competition in the second paragraph relies heavily on repetitive lists of adjectives like "more tough," "more organised," "rough and tough," and "more disciplined," without fully exploring why or how these traits develop. Similarly, the points regarding cooperation are somewhat circular, stating that people feel stressed by competition and therefore need cooperation. While a clear position is established, the development remains superficial, which places this response securely at Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, including an introduction, two distinct body paragraphs representing opposing views, and a concluding paragraph. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. Cohesive devices such as "Firstly," "Secondly," "To elaborate," and "In conclusion" are employed to sequence information, although some transitions feel a bit mechanical. Referencing is generally clear, as seen in the phrase "these views" in the conclusion. However, logical progression within paragraphs is occasionally hindered by repetitive phrasing and minor structural disconnects. Overall, the organizational framework meets the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, with terms like "personality," "ambitious," "motivation," and "participation." However, there are notable word-choice and collocation inaccuracies throughout the text, such as "work area" instead of "workplace," "a cooperation" using an unnecessary article, and "prospectives" instead of "perspectives." Additionally, the student frequently repeats basic vocabulary items like "tough," "stressed," and "society." While the vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas, the presence of these noticeable lexical errors and limited flexibility prevents the score from reaching higher bands, aligning best with Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures such as "It depend on person to person whether they required a tough competition..." However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors involving subject-verb agreement (e.g., "competition... help," "It depend," "they required"), tense consistency, and article usage. Furthermore, awkward phrasing like "no one feel stress" and "those feel so stressed" detracts from control. While communication is not severely impeded, the frequency of basic grammatical errors means the response falls into the Band 5.0 category.

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