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)

Professional and personal life is interconnected with competition in the neo liberal era. It is often argued that competition at work, school and in day to day life is beneficial , whereas, several others believes that cooperation is better than competition. This essay will discuss both the above mentioned notions and validate my opinion that healthy competition is crucial in the fast moving world like ours and it should ideally have boundaries to keep it manageable.

To embark on, numerous individuals believe in competition each other in all walks of life including work, life and school. This often implies that, competition mentality will motivates and encourages people to involve in various activities and enhancing will power. For instance, the healthy competition among employees in a firm can drastically develop the overall achievement of the work force and thereby creates a high standard of employment. Hence, maintaining a momentum in day to day competitions can eventually makes herculian tasks easily achievable.

On the flip side, competition is seen as a drawback in individuals and often portrayed as an antonym of cooperation. Cooperation is significantly crucial in maintaining stability in life and work, rather than competition. To cite an example, a group task is easy and achievable than a personal task, where competition is viable. When individuals used to work in a team with same spirit, with out any clashes between each other it can leads to higher performance as a team power. Therefore, having a cooperative mindset, which is robust is necessary in terms of success.

To conclude, competition and cooperation has its own consequences. Maintaining a stable and health competition along with cooperation has lead to create overall successful individuals.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation while providing the writer's own opinion in the introduction. However, some ideas are under-developed or lack sufficient extension. For instance, the argument that competition 'motivates and encourages people to involve in various activities and enhancing will power' is introduced but not fully elaborated with a robust explanation or specific outcome. The conclusion also introduces a slight shift by mentioning maintaining a 'stable and health competition' without bringing new depth. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to more fully develop their main arguments with deeper explanations and more comprehensive supporting details throughout the body paragraphs.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, body paragraphs on competition and cooperation, and the conclusion logically. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as 'To embark on', 'On the flip side', and 'To conclude'. However, some referencing and cohesion are occasionally mechanical or slightly awkward, such as starting a body paragraph with 'To embark on' rather than a standard transition like 'On the one hand'. Additionally, referencing can be unclear, as seen in the phrase 'where competition is viable' following a discussion of group tasks. To progress further, the writer should ensure that cohesive devices connect ideas more naturally and that the logical progression between sentences is smoother and less abrupt.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to use less common lexical items such as 'neo liberal era', 'herculian tasks', and 'cooperative mindset'. However, there are noticeable word-choice errors, word form inaccuracies, and spelling mistakes throughout the text. Examples include 'competition each other' instead of 'competing with each other', 'enhancing will power' instead of 'enhancing willpower', 'health competition' instead of 'healthy competition', and spelling issues like 'herculian' instead of 'herculean'. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they prevent the writer from achieving a higher band. To improve, the writer needs to expand their control of collocations and word forms, and carefully proofread for spelling slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, attempting various clauses and introductory phrases. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that surface across different sentence types. Examples include subject-verb agreement and preposition issues such as 'several others believes' instead of 'believe', 'competition mentality will motivates' instead of 'will motivate', 'competition among employees... and thereby creates' with tense inconsistency, and 'with out any clashes between each other it can leads to higher performance' containing a comma splice and verb form error. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to hold the score at this level. To improve, the writer should focus on mastering subject-verb agreement, verb tense consistency, and avoiding unnecessary commas.

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

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