Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-25
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)
Competition at work, school and in daily life is not completely a good or a bad thing. It depends on how you are perceiving that competition. There is a difference between healthy and unhealthy competition. A healthy competition is something that motivates you to overcome your weaknesses by learning skills that lack in you from others. It does not involve the intention of dragging someone else down or wishing bad for someone. It encourages you to become a better version of yourself everyday. On the other hand, unhealthy competition eats you internally. Your will to make someone feel defeated overwhelm and exhausts you to an extent that you yourself become unhappy and unsatisfied. You do not learn good things from it. For example, a person who wants to learn something new from his coleague to bring a change for betterment in this world would be much satisfied with his work and will earn his position in the company or worklplace with pure intentions. On the other hand a person who works hard just to make someone else feel defeated will not learn anything from his work and will always consider life a race. So, to conclude, competition at work,place and in daily life is a good thing until it remains healthy.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 6.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The student addresses the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation, while also providing a clear personal opinion that competition is good when healthy. However, the response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, containing only 211 words. Consequently, the ideas are somewhat limited and under-developed, particularly regarding the cooperation viewpoint requested in the prompt, which is largely overshadowed by the detailed discussion on healthy versus unhealthy competition. To reach a higher band, the writer must ensure all parts of the prompt receive balanced development and that the essay meets the required length.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The essay demonstrates a basic logical organisation with an introduction, body discussion, and a concluding sentence starting with 'So, to conclude'. However, the paragraphing is extremely weak, as the entire body of the essay is lumped into a single dense block of text instead of being separated into distinct paragraphs for each view and the writer's opinion. Cohesive devices are used ('On the other hand', 'For example'), but referencing and progression are hindered by the lack of clear paragraph structure. To improve, the writer should use standard paragraphing conventions to separate different ideas.
Lexical Resource: Band 6.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'overwhelm', 'unsatisfied', 'betterment', and 'intentions'. There are, however, some noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'learning skills that lack in you' instead of 'skills you lack', and spelling mistakes like 'coleague' (colleague) and 'worklplace' (workplace). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to a Band 6.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0
The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional or relative structures like 'a person who wants to learn something new from his colleague to bring a change...'. There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, including 'is not completely a good or a bad thing' and 'Your will to make someone feel defeated overwhelm and exhausts you' (subject-verb agreement error). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but frequent minor inaccuracies prevent the text from achieving a higher band score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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