Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-01

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 6.5)

To certain people competing in various settings in life is a good thing while others prefer cooperation. Those who like competition think that it drives people to improve themselves and brings the best out of them. The people who are inclined towards cooperating would feel that we can get a great outcome by covering eachothers shortcommings. While both sides have valid arguments I mostly agree with the proposition that we should focus on cooperation more due to its impact.

It is true that the the drive to perform better than someone else will in most cases lead a person to a path of self-improvement. If the feeling is mutual between two or more parties, then it can create a self regulating system where the improvement of one party will motivate the other party to improve, who will inturn motivate the previous party when they pull ahead with their efforts. For example, the game Genshin Impact was a first of its kind and garnered a huge player base. But their naturally were a lot of issues in such a large game which the developers failed to address. But once the competitor game "Wuthering Waves" launched the game developers became very responsive and both games became very player friendly which is true to this day.

Cooperation on the other hand helps us achieve great things by relying on eachother's strengths. No one is truly perfect in this world; everyone has their strength and weaknesses. Trying to be better in every single aspect can lead to mediocrity in all aspects. A human being has limited time, strength and resources. Consider an army where every soldier tries to be better than other soldiers and an other army where the soldiers try to work together to defeat the other army. Naturally an army which utilizes their soldiers to their strenghts in appropriate positions will secure victory if all other aspects are equal.

My personal opinion we should focus on improving our cooperation while not hindering people's competitive spirit. This is because anyone in any situation would benefit from cooperation. People are social beings by nature. The vast improvement we as society have achieved is due to working together towards common goals. The only downside can be that it can cause over-reliance on other people which is why people's competitive spirit also need to be nurtured.

To conclude I would say that the people need both competition and cooperation in life. But if we are to focus on something it should be on cooperation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the benefits of competition and cooperation while clearly stating your own position in the introduction and conclusion. The ideas presented are generally relevant, such as the discussion on how competition drives self-improvement and how cooperation leverages complementary strengths. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed; for instance, the gaming example regarding Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves is somewhat colloquial and could have been tied more academically to professional or educational environments to fully extend the argument. Nevertheless, your position remains clear throughout the response, satisfying the requirements for this level while hinting at fuller development seen in higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear progression of ideas from discussing competition, moving to cooperation, and finally synthesizing both in your conclusion. Paragraphing is used logically to separate each distinct argument. Cohesive devices are employed reasonably well, with transition phrases like 'It is true that', 'Cooperation on the other hand', and 'To conclude' helping to guide the reader through your thoughts. However, cohesion occasionally feels slightly mechanical, and referencing could be smoother in places, such as in the transition between paragraphs where the links between concepts rely heavily on basic conjunctions rather than sophisticated substitution or ellipsis. This puts your organizational control right in line with the expected standard.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and phrasing such as 'self-regulating system', 'complementary strengths', and 'competitive spirit'. Communication is clear despite some lexical and spelling inaccuracies, such as 'shortcommings' instead of 'shortcomings', 'eachothers' instead of 'each other's', and the awkward collocation 'naturally were a lot of issues'. While these word choice and spelling errors do not impede communication, a greater precision in stylistic control and fewer minor slips would be needed to reach a higher band. Your choice of words adequately conveys your message, but expanding your range of more sophisticated academic vocabulary will further elevate your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures effectively, such as 'If the feeling is mutual between two or more parties, then it can create a self regulating system...'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation present throughout the text, including missing articles like 'in an other army where the soldiers try to work together', minor punctuation slips, and occasional preposition errors. However, these errors are sporadic rather than frequent, and they rarely impede communication. Your control of sentence structures shows a good foundation, though increasing the proportion of error-free complex sentences and polishing punctuation accuracy will help you progress further.

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