Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · 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 6.5)

Some people believe that competition at work, school and in daily life is useful, while others think people should cooperate more. This essay will discuss both views and explain why I believe that a balanced between competition and cooperation is important.

One the one hand, competition can have several benefits. At school, students may study harder when they want to get higher marks than their classmates. Similarly, at work, employees may try to improve their skills and performance because they want to gets a promotion. Competition can also encourage people to set goals and work harder. For example, a student eho wants to be the best in a class may spend more time studying and achieve better results.

One the other hand, too much competition can create problems. People may become stressed or worried if they always compare themselves with others. In the workplace, strong competition can also damage relationships between employees since they may focus only on their own success. In addition, cooperation is often neccessary to solve problems. For instance, students working together on a group project can share ideas and complete the task more effectively. In daily life, people also need to help their friends, family and neighbours rather than trying to be better from them.

In conclusion, I believe that using both competition and cooperation can help people achieve their goals while maintaining good relationships with others. In my opinion, competition is useful when it encourages people to improve themselves, but cooperation is equally important. People should complete in a healthy way without trying to harm others. At the same time, schools and workplaces should encourage teamwork and sharing.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the views that competition is good and that cooperation should be preferred, while presenting a clear, consistent personal position throughout the essay. Ideas are extended and supported well, such as explaining how academic or workplace competition drives performance, and why group projects benefit from cooperation. However, there is a slight tendency to over-generalise in parts, such as broad claims about daily life and helping neighbors, which keeps the response at this level. To reach higher, the ideas could be developed with even greater depth and specificity, ensuring that every supporting point is thoroughly explored without leaning on repetitive phrasing.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay demonstrates a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Information and ideas are coherently structured, featuring a clear introduction that outlines the essay's direction, distinct body paragraphs handling each perspective, and a logical conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'One the one hand' and 'In addition' are used to signal transitions between ideas, though there are minor mechanical errors in fixed phrases, like 'One the one hand' instead of 'On the one hand'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately to group related ideas. To achieve a higher band, the writer would need to employ referencing and substitution more flexibly, and ensure that every cohesive link is completely natural and accurate.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, providing a sufficient range of terms related to education, employment, and interpersonal dynamics, such as 'performance', 'promotion', and 'relationships'. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary and appropriate collocations, but there are noticeable errors in word choice, form, and spelling that reflect a typical intermediate profile. Examples of these slips include typos and minor lexical inaccuracies like 'a balanced' instead of 'a balance', 'eho' instead of 'who', 'neccessary', and 'better from them' instead of 'better than them'. These do not impede communication, but they prevent the writer from accessing a higher band. To improve, the writer should focus on expanding precise lexical control and proofreading carefully for spelling and prepositional collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating good control over basic clause structures and attempting more intricate constructions such as conditional meanings and relative clauses. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly with verb forms in dependent clauses, such as 'because they want to gets a promotion', but these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede communication, showing that many sentences are error-free. To move further up the scale, the writer needs to incorporate a wider variety of complex structures consistently with greater accuracy, ensuring that all verb agreements and tense forms within complex sentences are entirely error-free.

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