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)

Nowadays a number of people agrue that the competition at work, at school and in individual's daily routine is beneficial to bring more effective and efficient outcomes. In contrast, many people believes that competing with peers instead of cooperating with them is an negative development, and that working in a team can produce more positive outcomes.

Overall, there are two groups: group A and group B, the people in group A claims that the competition at office, at education institutes, and in daily life is an productive model, it boost the individual's levels of intelligence, and enhance levels of understanding, and builts innovate mindsets to acheive a goal. For example: Sales targets in banks, the upper management ofbanks assign unrealistic sales targets to their employees, and compare their employee's performance with eachothers, so all of them try theit best to compete with their colleges to overtake them and bring top position to get their promotion.

The people in group B suggests that, rather then challenging collegues, and class mates, we should cooperate mutually and share their ideas to make better strategy to achieve their goals in daily life. For instance: UBL, their customer service is excellent. They have zero tolerance policy on customers satisfaction, customers service staff is guided that they have to take call within they rings of phone, if all of the service staff are busy then operations and sales staff have to take calls to provide quality services by resolving customers problems or aliging them with relevant department for quick resolution.

In this eassy, i argued both goups points of views and each of them have valid reasonms to support their opinions. However i completely agree, and support the opinion of group B. A bunch of sticks are hard to break instead of single stick, the productivity of an team is always more as compare to performance of an individual.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the views on competition and cooperation and stating a clear personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. For instance, the discussion on banking sales targets is introduced to support the competitive view, but it focuses heavily on a narrative rather than fully extending the underlying arguments. Similarly, the example of the customer service policy is relevant to cooperation, yet some supporting points remain slightly unclear or under-developed. To move to a higher band, the writer needs to ensure that every main idea is fully elaborated with deeper analysis and consistently well-supported arguments throughout the essay.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement and follows a recognisable structure with an introduction, body paragraphs outlining opposing views, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is not always clear, such as the abrupt categorisation into 'group A' and 'group B'. Paragraphing is used, but the logical progression between sentences can feel disjointed at times. The use of cohesive devices is present, such as 'In contrast' and 'However', but they are occasionally repetitive or overused. To achieve a higher level, the writer must ensure that transitions between ideas are smoother and that referencing pronouns clearly point to their intended antecedents without causing confusion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'beneficial', 'productive model', and 'cooperate mutually'. Nevertheless, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that occur throughout the text, including 'agrue' instead of argue, 'believes' instead of believe, 'colleges' instead of colleagues, 'eassy' instead of essay, and 'reasonms' instead of reasons. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the score. To improve lexical resource, the student should expand their command of less common academic vocabulary, pay closer attention to word forms and collocations, and carefully proofread their writing to eliminate avoidable spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some attempt at complex structures such as conditional and relative clauses. There are, however, some recurring errors in grammar and punctuation, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'many people believes', incorrect article usage such as 'an negative development' and 'an productive model', and punctuation slips in compound sentences. While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they are persistent enough to cap the grammatical score. To reach the next band, the writer needs to demonstrate better control over complex sentence patterns, ensure consistent agreement between subjects and verbs, and use articles and punctuation more accurately.

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

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