Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

It is often argued that competition is good at work, at school anf in daily life but some believe in cooperative work. In my opinion, it is better to do teamwork because in group work we can easily achieve our goal.

People of today's generation are very competitive and they think competition is good at every field. Competative mind helps to generate more thinking capacity because they have to be better from other people, so they start to research more about particular field to gain more knowledge. People don't feel lazy while doing their work because they believe to do best among all. They become more focused and hardworking towards their work.

On the other hand, when people are doing group work their mind will be relaxed because the work is divided and the work burden will become less. The ideas will be more because there will be many people and they can easily choose and analyz the best idea for their work which helps to make the work perfect. In groupwork, they can easily achieve goal in less time because of the involvement of many people. People can share their ideas, views with each other, and also can gain many knowledge from others in cooperative work. So, many people prefer that cooperative is better than competition.

In conclusion, it is better to engage in cooperative work because it helps to make the work smoother and can easily gain success. We can get many essential life related knowledge from older and exprience people in cooperative work.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the view that competition is beneficial and the alternative view favouring cooperation, while also providing a personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. For instance, the discussion on competition in the second paragraph mentions generating thinking capacity and preventing laziness, but these points remain rather general and lack specific supporting examples. Similarly, while the benefits of group work are outlined, such as reduced burden and idea-sharing, the arguments could be extended further with deeper explanation or illustration. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to ensure that every main idea is fully elaborated with robust, concrete explanations rather than relying on generalized statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear, traditional four-paragraph structure comprising an introduction, two body paragraphs representing each side of the argument, and a conclusion. Information is generally sequenced logically, starting with competition and moving to cooperation. However, the use of cohesive devices is at times mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on phrases like "work" and simple connective links between sentences. Referencing is occasionally slightly unclear, as seen in pronoun usage in the second paragraph where 'they' lacks a precise singular anchor. To improve cohesion further, the writer should employ a wider and more flexible variety of transitional phrases and ensure smoother referencing to guide the reader seamlessly through the arguments.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-related terms such as 'competitive', 'cooperative work', 'burden', and 'analyz'. There are several noticeable lexical and spelling errors, such as 'anf' instead of 'and', 'Competative', 'analyz', 'exprience', and the phrasing 'gain many knowledge', which reveal limitations in word form and collocation. While these errors do not seriously impede overall communication, they do recur and prevent the vocabulary from achieving greater precision or natural flow. To progress, the writer should focus on expanding word families, mastering correct word forms, and refining collocations, such as using 'acquire knowledge' instead of 'gain knowledge'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response displays a mix of simple and moderately complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at multi-clause structures such as conditional and relative clauses. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, including missing articles ('in every field' instead of 'in every field'), subject-verb agreement issues ('cooperative is better'), and minor prepositional errors. Fortunately, these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede communication, allowing the reader to follow the train of thought without severe difficulty. To achieve a higher standard, the writer needs to increase control over complex sentence patterns, ensure accurate article usage, and eliminate basic grammatical slips through careful proofreading.

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