Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-04

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)

It is argued that competition in daily life, at the workplace and between students is the best thing. While others argue that people should work together instead of competing. Although both sides have their own benefits, I believe people should compete against each other. This essay will discuss both views and my opinion.

On the one hand, proponents argue that people should compete at the workplace, school and in daily life. When there is no rivalry between people, they do not try to achieve new things in life. If there is a challenge among people in a company or school, then individuals compare their results with other people and then they try to achieve more success compared to others. So, this challenge among people inspires them to be more creative and productive in their life, which helps with personal growth. For instance, Elon Musk considered every car company as a competitor, which helped him to be more creative, so his unique thoughts helped to develop electric cars, making his company a leading one in the market. Hence, competition between two people helps them to be more creative.

On the other hand, it is believed that there should be no rivalry between people. The reason for this is that sometimes rivalry at work and in daily life leads to frustration. Because of this, people go to some extent to compete with others, which gives bad outcomes in the end. So, cooperating at work and school helps people to be less stressed because they can share their work between them, which reduces the burden on the individual. In addition, by working together, people can complete work very quickly and effectively. Due to this, rather than competing against each other, people should work collectively.

In conclusion, both have their own advantages. However,i belive that people should challenge each other to be more productive.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both views on competition versus cooperation and providing a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For example, the body paragraph discussing the benefits of competition includes a relevant and specific example regarding Elon Musk and car companies, which extends the idea effectively. In contrast, the opposing paragraph on cooperation relies on somewhat repetitive reasoning regarding stress reduction and efficiency without providing a concrete real-world example. To move into higher bands, all main ideas would need to be equally well-supported and extended with specific details or examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, two distinct body paragraphs, and a conclusion, ensuring the progression of ideas is generally easy to follow. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two opposing viewpoints. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or somewhat repetitive, relying heavily on transitional phrases such as "On the one hand," "On the other hand," "For instance," and "In addition." Furthermore, referencing and referencing links could be smoother; for instance, the phrase "Because of this, people go to some extent to compete with others" lacks clear antecedent precision. To achieve a higher level, the writer needs to employ more varied and flexible cohesive devices without over-relying on formulaic transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as "proponents," "productive," "frustration," and "collectively." However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and phrasing throughout the text. For example, stating that competition is "the best thing" in the opening sentence is somewhat simplistic, and phrases like "go to some extent to compete" sound unnatural compared to standard collocations like "go to great lengths." Additionally, there are minor mechanical errors such as the lowercase "i" in the final sentence ("i belive"). The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas clearly, but greater precision and naturalness in word choice are required to reach higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, featuring subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions such as "while," "although," and "because." There are some grammatical errors and punctuation issues present, but they rarely impede communication. Examples of minor inaccuracies include repetitive sentence openings and minor structural awkwardness, such as "share their work between them" instead of "share the workload." Punctuation and article usage are generally acceptable, though occasional slips occur. To progress further, the student should aim to incorporate a wider variety of complex grammatical structures with a higher frequency of completely error-free sentences.

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