Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-02

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 6.0)

Competition at work, school or in daily life can be appealing to some people, while others may think cooperation is better. However, in my opinion a limited amount of both can motivate people towards their endeavours.

Firstly, competition is good because in schools it persuades students to perform better. Industries develop new products in order to keep customers from turning to their competitors. However, in daily life it can be stressful as people start comparing themselves with others. Moreover, this can disturb their lifestyle drastically. For example,

Secondly, cooperation promotes teamwork. It can help achieve achieve difficult tasks easily. It promotes healthy environment at workplace. Additionally, in daily life cooperation results in a composed society. But it can promote sluggish behaviour among people as they start depending on others to a dangerous level. Some may use this in their favor playing psychology tactics.

I think both these norms are valuable to the society. Competitions among students, workers or neighbours can help them with continuous improvement. Furthermore, cooperating at tough times and helping each other can develop a sense of morality minimizing emotions like envy and self doubt leading to happiness.

Therefore, at a certain level they both can be good. Nevertheless, when they cross this limit situation might get out of hand. People start struggling excessively that might effect both their mental and physical health severely. On the other hand some may start burdening their helping hand. Thus competition and cooperation both can benefit but in the increased scenario they might result in collapse of a society.

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 also providing a personal opinion. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, which keeps the response at this level. For instance, the discussion on how competition drives industrial development and school performance is relevant, but the sentence 'For example,' trails off without a completed illustration. Similarly, the points regarding cooperation promoting a composed society and avoiding sluggish behavior are introduced but lack extended elaboration. The writer's position is clear throughout, but deeper exploration of the arguments would be required to move further.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas about competition and cooperation. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly,' 'Secondly,' and 'Furthermore' are employed to structure the text, though referencing and transitions can occasionally feel a bit mechanical or abrupt, as seen in the sudden shift between sentences in the second paragraph. To reach the next band, the writer would need to employ more sophisticated and fluid referencing and smoother transitional phrases to guide the reader effortlessly through the arguments.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully conveying the intended meaning with terms such as 'endeouvres,' 'continuous improvement,' and 'morality.' The writer makes commendable attempts to use less common vocabulary, though this is accompanied by some minor word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'playing psychology tactics' instead of 'psychological tactics' or 'playing psychological games,' and 'in the increased scenario.' Spelling and word formation are generally accurate, and errors do not impede communication. A broader range of precise academic vocabulary and idiomatic collocations would be necessary to achieve a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating a decent handle on sentence structure. Examples such as 'Competition at work, school or in daily life can be appealing to some people, while others may think cooperation is better' showcase the ability to construct compound-complex sentences. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation present—such as missing articles ('at workplace' instead of 'at the workplace'), slight preposition issues ('cooperating at tough times' instead of 'in tough times'), and minor punctuation lapses—but they occur infrequently and rarely impede communication. The control over verb tenses and agreement is generally sound.

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