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)

People believe that competition at workplace, at educational institutes and in daily routine is excellent thing. Others think that they should try to assist each other more, rather than competing against individuals. I think people should try to help and cooperate with their workers, fellow mates or in their daily lives but healthy competition also need to be encouraged.

The cooperation has many benefits, like helping others make tasks for themselves easier and are able to learn from others alot. Furthermore, cooperating with people around you will help them as well as you whenever you need them and this solves alot of problems for example in my college when I was junior, a senior helped me to complete my task which I was not able to do so as this just not completed my task on the deadline but also learned how to complete these sort of assignments and tackle them. The way you are asked to help and someday you will also be assisted as sometimes team work brings alot more than just a indidvidual working techniques for example, 2 to 3 people working together saves the time, gain new experience as well and helps bulid network with different people and socialise with fellow employees and students or teachers.

On the other hand, competition can be encouraged as it might motivates individual to perform well than there fellow person and this leads to improve their productivity. Competition is good thing that it boost confidence as for example, the competition betweeen students have resulted in outstanding outcomes, as it pushes the person to work hard and give your best.

In conclusion, cooperating with people you surrounded with is a good thing because it saves you time and get to learn new things. While competition to the some extent helps like people who are passionate about soem thing but if they are not willing to do then competition will not help.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the views on competition and cooperation while clearly stating a personal position in the introduction. The candidate argues that while cooperation is beneficial for learning and productivity, healthy competition should also be encouraged to boost confidence and output. Ideas are generally well-extended, such as the personal example of receiving help from a college senior. However, some arguments in the second paragraph, particularly the run-on sentence discussing teamwork advantages, tend to wander and become slightly repetitive. Overall, the task is covered adequately with a clear stance, placing it comfortably in the Band 6.5 to 7.0 range.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is a logical overall organization, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing both sides of the argument, and a brief conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Furthermore', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion'. However, paragraphing and sentence structure issues affect overall cohesion. The second body paragraph contains an extremely long, convoluted sentence spanning multiple lines ('The way you are asked to help... and socialise with fellow employees and students or teachers') that lacks proper punctuation and makes it difficult to follow the progression of thought. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and cohesive management becomes mechanical, leading to a Band 6 score.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common collocations and topic-specific terms such as 'educational institutes', 'productivity', and 'passionate'. However, there are frequent word choice errors, missing articles, and awkward phrasing, such as 'at workplace' instead of 'the workplace', 'fellow mates' instead of 'colleagues', and 'competition is good thing that it boost confidence'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but lexical inaccuracies and awkward word forms ('bulid' instead of 'build', 'indidvidual' instead of 'individual') prevent the writing from achieving a higher band. The lexical resource is sufficient for communication but reflects Band 5.5 characteristics.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional and relative clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the text. There are numerous errors in subject-verb agreement and article usage, such as 'competition... are excellent thing', 'healthy competition also need', and 'the cooperation has many benefits'. Run-on sentences and comma splices are common, notably in the second body paragraph where multiple clauses are strung together without appropriate punctuation. While meaning is rarely completely obscured, the high frequency of grammatical errors means that simple sentences are often error-free, but complex structures frequently contain mistakes, aligning with Band 5.0 descriptors.

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