Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

Few individuals believe that race at work, at school and in routine life is a good thing. Others consider that we should try to collaborate more instead of match with each other. To work jointly is more beneficial then alone. With group or team, you can achieve any goal of your life.

Firstly, in our daily life we meet with different kind of people, few want to do any task alone is better than combine work but there are lot of individuals prefer to compete each other at high level. There are benefits and also to many drawbacks. For example, in school life if any student starts the competition with their fellows, it creates a bad impact on the student mind. It will have pressurized him, and he forget.

In contrast, mostly people work on the different platforms in a group which enhance their ability because they all have different prospection due to this its help them a lot in every field of work. For instance, in any organization or at any company if employees cooperate and share their knowledge with their team the whole organization grows faster than if anyone work alone because they have only one target and they work hard in the shape of group and the collection of different ideas, they achieve their goal easily.

In my opinion, competition drivel individual excellence but cooperation builds a strong society. We should work together peacefully. Therefore, school and workplace should encourage both and cooperation make lot of routes for success in the future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation and offering a personal opinion, which places it within the mid-range of performance. However, the treatment of the ideas remains limited and under-developed. For instance, the introduction states that 'race at work' and 'match with each other' rather than competition and cooperation, showing a partial grasp of the prompt's core concepts. While the body paragraphs attempt to explore the impact of school competition and workplace teamwork, the supporting examples are brief and lack the extension required for higher levels. The conclusion presents a clear personal stance, noting that competition drives excellence while cooperation builds society, but overall, the depth of task fulfilment is restricted by generalisations and under-developed reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays some organisation with basic paragraphing, separating the introduction, body points, and conclusion, but there is no clear overall progression of ideas throughout the text. Cohesive devices are used, but they are often inadequate, repetitive, or inaccurate, such as starting body sentences with 'Firstly,' 'In contrast,' and 'Therefore,' which creates a mechanical feel. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in sentences like 'It will have pressurized him, and he forget,' where pronoun linkage and logical flow break down. While the reader can generally follow the broad shifts between discussing competition and cooperation, the lack of smooth transitions and precise logical sequencing prevents the text from achieving a higher level of cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for the task, with noticeable errors that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. There are persistent issues with word choice and collocation, such as using 'race' instead of 'competition', 'match' instead of 'compete', and 'combine work' instead of 'collaborative work'. The student attempts less common expressions like 'individual excellence' and 'collection of different ideas', but these are accompanied by frequent slips in word form and expression. Spelling and lexical control remain basic, restricting the ability to convey precise meaning naturally and flexibly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The grammatical range is limited, relying mostly on simple sentences alongside attempts at complex structures that are frequently faulty. There are numerous errors in verb forms, tense consistency, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'To work jointly is more beneficial then alone', 'few want to do any task alone is better', and 'school and workplace should encourage both and cooperation make lot of routes'. Punctuation and article usage are also inconsistent throughout the text. These frequent errors across basic and complex structures cause noticeable difficulty for the reader and reflect a restricted control of grammatical accuracy.

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