Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-07

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 5.0)

Some people think that competition at work ,at school and in daily life is agood thing while others should try to cooperate more rather than competing against each other. Competion at work, school,daily life can be a good thing in that it can increase performance in general. However, cooperation can also make the work earsier and enhance good relationship among collegues or students.

To begin, competition at school ,at work or in daily life can promote good perfomance. People teend to work extra hard to beat the other poeple leading to improved perfomarce. For instance, students in school compete with each other and the rewards are always given to the best performer. The low performing student will study more in order to receive the reward, and at the end of the term performance will be improved. However, competition can result to shame to those who underperform hence people will tend to be discouraged.

On the other hand, competition can promote positive relationship among the workers or the student. This is as a result of helping each other when in need of help.Furthermore, competition can promote efficiency at work. This is maily achived when people share tasks at work and work together to achieve a certain goal. For example, a task can be completed even if someone is absent from work due to an emergency without causing any inconviniences.

To conclude, I think cooperation is important rather than competition in that it promote work efficiency and promote good relationship between people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You address both views by explaining that competition may improve performance and that cooperation can support efficiency and relationships, and your conclusion gives a clear preference for cooperation. However, the discussion is uneven and several points are not fully explained. The paragraph beginning “On the other hand” discusses cooperation, but its opening claim says competition promotes positive relationships, which makes the view being discussed unclear. The example about covering for an absent colleague supports teamwork, but needs more explanation of how this answers the task. The response also contains 225 words, so it is 25 words below the required minimum; this limits the space available to develop both sides and support your opinion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

Your response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, separate body paragraphs and a conclusion. Sequencing phrases such as “To begin,” “For instance,” and “To conclude” help signal the stages of the argument. However, progression is not consistently clear. In particular, the second body paragraph starts by saying “competition can promote positive relationship,” then explains helping one another and sharing tasks, which are points about cooperation. This contradiction disrupts the paragraph’s focus. Some links are also mechanical, and the relationship between ideas is not always explicit. For example, explain how the school reward example demonstrates the benefits and possible drawbacks of competition before moving to the next point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “performance,” “efficiency,” “underperform,” and “share tasks.” There are also attempts to express cause and result, such as “leading to improved performance.” However, the range is limited and some wording is repetitive, particularly repeated references to “competition,” “work,” and “people.” Several spelling errors are noticeable, including “Competion,” “perfomance,” “teend,” and “inconviniences,” and some word combinations are unnatural, such as “result to shame” and “good relationship among colleagues.” These errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the overall argument, but more accurate spelling and collocation, alongside a wider range of precise expressions, would strengthen the writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a cause-and-effect structure in “People tend to work extra hard … leading to improved performance” and a conditional example beginning “even if someone is absent.” Meaning is generally understandable, but the range is limited and errors occur regularly. For example, “cooperation … it promote” has a subject–verb agreement error, while “competition can result to shame” uses an incorrect grammatical pattern. There are also problems with articles and plurals in “promote positive relationship” and with sentence punctuation, including missing spaces after full stops. Aim to produce accurate basic sentences first, then add complex clauses and check agreement, articles and punctuation carefully.

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

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