Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-28
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)
Some people argue that competition at work or at education life or daily life is a positive thing while others people life cooperate rather than competing against each other.
I believe that both have their own advantages but cooperation is more important.
On the first hand, challenge each other play important role in life, it encourage people to compete against their competitors. In academic life it motivate students to achieve good marks in their class. It also help people’s in their daily life to complete theirs dreams. For instance students in their academic life work hard and sometime they burn candle at night to achieve their desired marks. This also make them strong to face challenges in future. In office people work very hard to impress their boss and get reward or promotion this also help to achieve their dream position in office or get good salary. However competition in life also have some drawbacks like people work very hard and they don’t have enough time for their family or taking rest which can affect their relationship or health.
On the other hand, working in groups have many advantages, it helps peoples to share their ideas with each others, working cooperatively also provides chance to help your colleagues. In school life it beneficial for those students who are struggling academically this provide chance to learn from their seniors. Working in groups also helped peoples to make new friends they completed their task together eat together this make their relationship more strong. For example student who work in group learn more quickly and efficiently it help them to get desirable marks. In daily life involving in group activities make relationships more strong among people.
In conclusion, being a cooperative in life is more important than competition it is the best way of learning or making relationships strong.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the benefits of competition and the advantages of cooperation, and clearly states the student's own opinion in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are extended with examples from academic and professional contexts, such as students working hard for marks and employees striving for promotions. However, some arguments tend to over-generalise and lack deep development, which places this response comfortably in the Band 6 category. The overall position is clear throughout, but the depth of support for each viewpoint remains somewhat straightforward and predictable.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay displays a clear overall structure with an introduction, body paragraphs addressing each side, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. However, cohesion at the sentence level is frequently mechanical and sometimes faulty. For instance, the transition 'On the first hand' is non-standard, and referencing pronouns like 'they' and 'it' can occasionally be ambiguous (e.g., 'challenge each other play important role... it encourage people'). Furthermore, logical progression within paragraphs is occasionally disrupted by run-on sentences and a lack of smooth transitional phrasing.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate their main ideas about work, school, and daily life. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'cooperatively', 'academically', and 'promotion', but these are accompanied by notable word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'education life' instead of 'educational life', 'challenge each other' instead of 'challenging each other', and 'burn candle at night' instead of 'burn the midnight oil'. Spelling and morphological errors like 'peoples' and 'relationship more strong' occur, but they do not impede overall communication, aligning with Band 5.5 standards.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using subordinate clauses introduced by 'while', 'when', and 'who'. However, grammatical accuracy is a weak point. The text contains frequent errors, including missing auxiliary verbs, subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'challenge each other play', 'competition... also have'), and run-on sentences joined merely by commas (e.g., 'challenge each other play important role in life, it encourage people...'). Punctuation is generally weak, with missing periods and commas that strain readability. These frequent errors mean the grammar is best characterised at Band 5.
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