Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-08

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)

Many individuals believe that competition is necessary at school, work and other settings. On the other hand, many believe that cooperation is the key. Both have their own advantages, but I tend to incline more towards the idea that competition is necessary for individuals in their daily lives.

I personally believe that healthy competition almost always results in creativity and motivation. A student or an employee would only get motivated if there is a competitor ahead of them. Think a student performing well in a class would try to do even better only if another student competes with him. Same is the thing with being creative. Artists claim that natural talent is one thing, but creativity is evoked if new ideas are in the market by competitors. A couple of years ago, Apple and Google started a competition amongst their employees, resulting in winners having different incentives. They think this keeps them motivated and their ability to generate ideas also improves.

Competition is not always necessary. There are a lot of scenarios where cooperation supersedes competition. Dragging students or employees who are challenged in someway, into competition would always end with negative results. Instead of the motivation to ourperform the competitors they might lose their confidence in their existing skills. In my school, where I completed my college. We used to have classes with children with disabilities. Our task was to keep them motivated rather than competing.

In conclusion, I do think cooperation has its merit, but it only applies in very specific scenarios. On the other hand, the majority of the time, competition is necessary to keep a student or an employee motivated and creative.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the discussion and state a clear preference for competition, especially in the introduction and conclusion. The points about motivation and creativity are relevant, and the example of supporting students with disabilities gives a reason why cooperation can be preferable in some situations. However, the two views are not developed equally: cooperation is treated mainly as an exception, and its broader benefits—such as sharing skills or achieving common goals—are not explored. Some support is also unclear or over-generalised, particularly the claim that students or employees are motivated only when they have a competitor. Explain the mechanisms behind each view and make the examples more precise to develop the response more fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for competition and cooperation, and a conclusion that restates your position. This makes the main line of argument easy to follow. Linking phrases such as “On the other hand,” “Instead,” and “In conclusion” help signal shifts between ideas. However, some connections within paragraphs are abrupt, and the progression can feel list-like: motivation, student performance, creativity, and the company example are placed together without fully showing how each point builds on the previous one. The sentence beginning “In my school” is also separated awkwardly from the preceding point. Use clearer transitions and references, and organise each paragraph around a central claim followed by explanation and evidence.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “healthy competition,” “motivation,” “creativity,” “incentives,” and “confidence.” These choices communicate the main ideas, and some less common expressions show an attempt to be precise. However, several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or awkward, such as “creativity is evoked,” “supersedes competition,” and “outperform the competitors.” There is also a spelling error in “outperform” and the phrase “in someway” should be written as two words. Aim for more natural combinations and precise wording; for example, describe creativity as being “stimulated” and explain that cooperation can “take precedence” in particular situations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures such as “if there is a competitor ahead of them” and a contrastive sentence beginning “Instead of the motivation…”. Most of the meaning remains clear, but some grammatical errors and punctuation problems are present. For example, “Think a student performing well in a class would try…” is an incomplete or awkwardly formed sentence, while “In my school, where I completed my college” is not a complete sentence on its own. The sentence “A couple of years ago, Apple and Google started a competition amongst their employees, resulting in winners having different incentives” also has an unclear grammatical relationship between the result and the main clause. Check sentence completeness, clause connections, and punctuation when revising.

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