Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-06

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 current day scenario, humans are at unreserved competition, whether it is their academics, jobs or their personal life. Being at constant Competition, their character and demeanour evolves, and such characteristic changes often reveals their true nature.

On the first hand, Being in a competitive environment, whether it's school, work, or personal life, often shapes a person's positive behaviour, yields mental health and ameliorates social maturity. Apart from these changes, the person becomes more proficient in their work as well as outperforms their colleague in the field. Competition also triggers the sense of dominance, which makes a person never want to loose, and give their best to the society, in order to shine in the crowd like a star.

On the other hand, such competitive environment often leaves drastic effects on the mental health; resulting in overwhelming stress, anxiety and in rare cases, depression. While being cooperative results in better team work and understanding of the tasks. The performance in cooperative environment is shared, but comparitively higher and better than individual performance.

In my opinion, I would choose to be at competitive environment, because it would showcase my limitless skills and true potential. in addition to that competitive environment often makes me be myself and focus my complete will towards that task, which brings out the best in me.

For conclusion, being at competition brings out the potential of a human being, and develops required skills to be better at each task. Not to forget, it also develops stronger social skills and instigates leadership qualities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both competition and cooperation before providing a clear personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. For instance, the first body paragraph touches on positive behaviours, mental health, and professional performance, but these points remain slightly under-developed and are presented as a list of general assertions rather than being fully extended with specific examples. The conclusion also introduces a fresh point about leadership qualities rather than summarising existing ideas. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to ensure that every main idea is thoroughly supported with clear explanations or relevant illustrations throughout the body paragraphs.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion, ensuring the writer's stance is visible. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the two opposing views and the personal opinion. However, cohesion is occasionally mechanical or faulty. Transitions such as 'On the first hand' (which mixes standard idioms) and 'For conclusion' are somewhat unnatural. Furthermore, referencing can be unclear, as seen in the sentence fragment 'While being cooperative results in better team work...', which lacks a main clause to connect it logically to the preceding sentence. Better control of cohesive devices and smoother logical transitions would improve the flow of the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'demeanour', 'ameliorates', and 'instigates'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and word formation. Examples include 'unreserved competition' instead of fierce or intense competition, 'yields mental health' where yields is collocationally inappropriate, and 'loose' instead of lose. There are also minor stylistic issues, such as 'In current day scenario'. These vocabulary and spelling inaccuracies do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the score because they show a lack of precision when handling less common lexical items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, reflecting an attempt to use varied grammatical structures. There are, however, several grammatical errors distributed throughout the essay. These include issues with articles ('at competitive environment' instead of in a competitive environment), prepositional use ('at work, at school and in daily life' versus in daily life, though 'at' works for the others), and sentence fragments ('While being cooperative results in better team work...'). Capitalisation errors also occur mid-sentence, such as 'in addition to that competitive environment'. While these errors occasionally cause the reader to pause, they rarely impede overall communication, placing the grammatical control firmly in this band.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.