Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-05

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)

In modern times, competition and cooperation are both important aspects of life. While certain individual believe that competition in work place, education and everyday activities motivated people to be successful, while others argue that cooperation is beneficial in the society. In my opnion Although competition can develop themselves, cooperation is more important for long-term success. This essay will elucidate the reason is support of my opinion.

On the one hand, competition play major role in encouraging their personal development. In educational system, students compete with their clasmates to score higher marks in the class room. For instance, many students wanted to achieve fist rank in the class room to become class monitor. Inworkplace can encourage employees to improve their skills and productivity, which can benefit both workers and companies. In daily life, competition can also push people to set higher goals and become more confident in their abilities. Therefore, a reasonable level of competition can be an effective way of encouraging personal development.

On the other hand, cooperation can provide significant benefits that competition cannot always offer. In the workplace, employees who cooperate with one another can share their knowledge, solve problems more efficiently and complete complex projects successfully. In education, students can learn from each other through group activities and discussions. Moreover, cooperation is essential in daily life because many social problems cannot be solved by individuals working alone. For instance, communities need to work together to address issues such as environmental pollution and public safety.

In my view, competition and cooperation should not be considered completely opposite approaches. Healthy competition can motivate people to perform better, but excessive competition may create stress, jealousy and conflict. Cooperation, on the other hand, helps people build stronger relationships and achieve common goals. Therefore, I believe that people should compete with themselves or others in a healthy way while also being willing to cooperate when working towards shared objectives.

In conclusion, competition can motivate individuals to improve their performance and achieve their goals, whereas cooperation promotes teamwork and helps people solve problems collectively. Although both are valuable, I believe that a balance between the two is the most effective approach.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the view that competition is beneficial and the view that cooperation is preferable, while also providing a clear personal opinion throughout the essay. The position is maintained from the introduction through to the conclusion, where you state that a balance between the two is the most effective approach. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. While the body paragraphs successfully offer examples regarding education and the workplace, the second body paragraph relies on slightly repetitive statements without fully extending every argument. To reach a higher level, you need to ensure that all main points are supported by deeper explanations and more precise real-world examples without over-generalising.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, using standard introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. You utilise basic cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'Moreover' to signal shifts in your arguments. However, cohesion is at times somewhat mechanical, and referencing is not always completely clear, such as in the opening paragraph where the transition 'While certain individual believe... while others argue' creates a grammatical mismatch and disrupts the logical flow. Progression is visible throughout the text, but achieving a higher band requires more seamless and varied cohesive links, avoiding formulaic transitions, and ensuring that referencing within and across sentences is managed with greater precision.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'productivity', 'environmental pollution', and 'collaboratively'. However, there are noticeable word-form, spelling, and word-choice errors that prevent a higher score, such as 'opnion', 'clasmates', 'fist rank', and 'Inworkplace'. Additionally, expressions like 'the reason is support of my opinion' contain awkward phrasing and collocation issues. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they highlight limitations in precision and control. To improve, you should focus on accurate word formation, correct spelling, and more natural phrasing when incorporating less common vocabulary into your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating the ability to construct compound and multi-clause sentences, such as 'While certain individual believe that competition in work place...'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar, including subject-verb agreement ('competition play', 'many students wanted'), missing articles ('In educational system', 'in class room'), and incorrect prepositional use ('in support of'). Although these errors occur throughout the text, they rarely impede communication, allowing the reader to follow your main ideas. To achieve a higher level, you need to exercise greater control over grammatical structures, ensuring accurate verb tenses, consistent article usage, and precise agreement across all sentence types.

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