Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-27

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 4.0)

nowadays competion is a common part of our lige we can see competition at school , at work and even in our daily life style . some people think that competion is useful becuase it makes people capable to work hard but at same time some belives that cooperation is more important . in my opinion both have benefits, but cooperation is more important in most situations

competition can be good thing becuase it encourages people to improve themselves fir exapmle students may studys hatder whne they compete with thier claasmates fir getting good marks . in the same like workers try to do thier job better when they want to get high salary and promotion

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response is severely under-length, containing only 116 words compared to the required 250-word minimum. Because of this significant shortfall, the task cannot be fully addressed or developed. While the writer manages to briefly touch upon both views regarding competition and cooperation and states a personal opinion in the introduction ('cooperation is more important in most situations'), the ideas remain largely underdeveloped. The second body paragraph starts to discuss the benefits of competition with examples like students studying harder, but it cuts off abruptly and fails to explore cooperation at all, leading to a major structural and task omission. Consequently, the score for this criterion is heavily penalised for length and lack of development, fitting the Band 4 profile.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The text suffers from a lack of proper formatting, punctuation, and capitalisation, which severely hampers the overall flow. There are no capital letters at the beginning of sentences (e.g., 'nowadays competion', 'some people') and punctuation is largely absent, causing sentences to run into one another. Paragraphing is also problematic; the second paragraph is left incomplete, and the essay lacks a concluding paragraph entirely. Although some basic cohesive devices are attempted, such as 'for example' and 'in the same like' (which is misused), the overall organisation lacks logical progression and cohesion. These cohesive failures and structural inadequacies firmly place this aspect of the writing at Band 4.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, with frequent spelling errors throughout the text. Examples of misspellings include 'competion' for competition, 'lige' for life, 'becuase' for because, 'fir' for for, 'exapmle' for example, 'studys' for study, 'hatder' for harder, 'whne' for when, and 'thier' for their. The range of vocabulary is extremely limited and inadequate for discussing abstract topics like competition and cooperation. There are very few attempts at less common lexical items, and the pervasive spelling mistakes strain the reader and obscure meaning at times, aligning with the descriptors for Band 4.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.0

The grammatical range is extremely limited, consisting mostly of simple and attempted complex structures that are marred by frequent mechanical and structural errors. There is a total absence of capitalisation and correct sentence boundary punctuation, making it difficult to identify distinct clauses and sentences. Errors are frequent and systematic, involving word forms, subject-verb agreement, and basic mechanics. While simple ideas are partially communicated, the high frequency of grammatical and mechanical errors significantly impedes readability. This performance is characteristic of Band 4, where errors are dominant and structures remain very basic.

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.