Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

Many individuals believe that competition throughout the life is a healthy thing while the others oppose of their idea and believe that it's better be more cooperative with eachother rather than always competing in every task. In my opinion I believe that being more cooperative is better than always competing with eachother since it is the only way people on both ends can gain benefits without losing anything to the other.

People who think that competition at work, school and in daily life is a good thing are not entirely wrong. Competition with eachother is good till some extent in life; as it teaches people to always try their best especially when they are not into some task fully with their mind and heart, Competition gives them a drive to be better for themselves rather than anyone else, those type of competitions are considered healthy for life. And it gets unhealthy if a person have always set their to mind to always competing with others, the brain of such person gets stuck in a loop and they treat even minor tasks as something very competitive and if they don't get it right they get angry. For example, a student who likes to compete with everyone in class and always achieve first position got demoted to third position for something he didn't prepare well for since he likes to study alone and to not help the others, he gets angry and jealous that other student got to hold his position instead of him.

On the other hand, the people who believe that cooperating with eachother is better than competing always live a peaceful life rather than a disturbed life because they know that they are not in a race with anyone. They help out eachother with their tasks and never treat anything as competition, this helps both people achieve their goals instead of one fighting over it. For example; in school, students who like to study together and help eachother out always achieve the same grades and they are both happy for eachothers grades rather than being jealous of the other.

In conclusion, while competition maybe healthy till some extend in life; cooperation still wins because it is the only way people can remain peaceful with one another and be happy for eachother .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You have addressed all parts of the prompt by discussing both the benefits of competition and cooperation, and you provided a clear position of your own in the introduction and conclusion. However, the development of your ideas is uneven. While your main points are relevant, some parts are under-developed or somewhat repetitive, such as the discussion on how cooperation leads to a peaceful life. To reach the next level, you need to extend your supporting examples with more depth, moving beyond basic scenarios to fully flesh out the implications of both viewpoints without relying on generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your essay has a coherent overall arrangement, and you have made a clear attempt to structure your response with an introduction, body paragraphs for each view, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. You rely heavily on basic transition phrases like 'On the other hand' and 'In conclusion,' and referencing is not always clear, such as the ambiguous pronoun use in sentences like 'oppose of their idea.' Paragraphing is present, but to achieve a higher score, you should use a wider variety of cohesive devices more flexibly and ensure that logical relationships between sentences flow more naturally.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, providing a basic range of words to express your ideas. You attempt some less common vocabulary, but this leads to noticeable errors in word choice, word form, and collocation, such as 'oppose of their idea' instead of 'oppose this idea' and 'till some extend' instead of 'to some extent.' There are also some minor spelling and phrasing slips. These errors do not heavily impede communication, but to progress to a higher band, you need to use a wider, more precise range of vocabulary with accurate word forms and natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms throughout your essay. However, your control over grammar is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in sentence structure and prepositions within grammatical patterns, such as 'throughout the life,' 'have always set their to mind,' and run-on sentences with comma splices, for example, 'For example; in school...' Despite these errors, communication is rarely completely blocked. To reach the next level, you need to produce more error-free sentences when attempting complex structures, paying closer attention to punctuation, verb forms, and prepositional usage.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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