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 recent years, the study and work load has been increased with people and students making different efforts to do their best. Some people believe that competiton has positive impact on overall performance, while other argue that the benefits of cooperation overwigh the pros of competition. In my opinion, cooperation is the best strategy to be successful.

Competition has became a common among students in school due to family and academic pressure. Undoubtedly, to be under some pressure is crucial to stay motivated and enthusiastic. But sometimes, competition leads to a sensation of jealousy. It can lead to stress and anxiety which may disrupt the overall academic performance, sleep cycle, and mental health of a student. Recent research of Asia showed evaluated that there is a high rate of students with high IQ to get depression and other mental illnesses due to high academic stressm It shows that competition may effects the way of thinking.

On the other hand, cooperation reduces the overall workload and promotes the spirit of kindness. By contributing equally in daily life activities life cleaning the house or doing laundry, the work burden lowers and love deepens. In schools, cooperation makes a balance in academic performance of whole class when brilliant students help average students to sharpen their concepts. Several studies proved that helping others fosters positivity in people, therefore such people always remain energetic and sorted rather than overthinking and getting overstressed.

At the end, it is necessary to stay positive to achieve goals. Cooperation makes a man kind and get helped in need while competition may develops hurdles in way to success leading to negative thoughts and inferiority complex specially in youth.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the views on competition and cooperation, and you clearly state your own opinion in the introduction. For instance, you explore the negative impacts of competition on mental health and explain how cooperation reduces workload. However, some ideas remain under-developed. While you mention that competition causes stress and anxiety, this point is not fully extended with deep explanation or concrete personal examples. Similarly, your supporting argument for cooperation in schools—that brilliant students help average students—is introduced but lacks further elaboration. To reach a higher level, you need to extend your main ideas more fully with richer explanation and more robust support throughout the body paragraphs.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear progression of ideas from the introduction, through the body paragraphs discussing competition and cooperation, to a concluding summary. You use clear paragraphing, dedicating distinct paragraphs to each main perspective. Cohesive devices are employed to guide the reader, such as transition phrases like 'On the other hand' and 'In recent years'. However, cohesion can sometimes feel a bit mechanical or repetitive, and referencing is occasionally imprecise, such as the abrupt transition in the final paragraph starting with 'At the end'. To move towards a higher level, you should ensure that cohesive devices connect ideas more naturally and fluidly without relying on formulaic transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your main points about competition and cooperation clearly. You make attempts at less common vocabulary items, such as 'inferiority complex', 'overthinking', and 'enthusiastic'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that reflect a limited and developing lexical range. For example, you wrote 'competiton' instead of competition, 'overwigh' instead of outweigh, 'became a common' instead of became common, and 'stressm' instead of stress. Additionally, collocations like 'the study and work load has been increased' and 'effects the way of thinking' show some inaccuracy. To achieve a higher score, you need to expand your range of vocabulary and eliminate spelling slips and awkward word choices.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like conditional clauses and relative clauses to connect your ideas. There are some accurate sentences, but your writing contains several errors in grammar and punctuation. For example, there are issues with articles and plurals, such as 'a sensation of jealousy' and 'life cleaning the house' instead of like cleaning the house. You also make agreement and tense errors, such as 'Recent research of Asia showed evaluated that there is a high rate...' and 'competition may effects'. Furthermore, punctuation and preposition choices within grammatical patterns occasionally falter. While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they prevent you from achieving a higher level, which requires a greater frequency of error-free complex sentences and stricter control over grammatical rules.

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