Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

More Humans believe that we should have a healthy competition in cooperate life, Educational institutes and in daily task as well they believe this is beneficial for growth and improvement. But when people discuss that we should avoid this and cooperate more, and understand thing mutually instead of competing against each other. In my opinion competition is good for growth and cooperating rather than competition is excellent of long term plan.

On the one hand, competition can have several positive effects. Such as, it encourages people to work harder and improve their performance. For example, working in office and doing the work in right direction and making every possible improvement you can do but still in annual award you don't get the award now you have a healthy competition with that person he also do the same work as yours but what he is bringing to the company is he is punctual with his work now you have to improve that then you can get awards next year this is what healthy competition looks like.

On the other hand, same if you get jealous and start hating the person who get what you are aiming for so this is why people want to cooperate and avoids competition and accept the situations and working more hard might get him a increment and spiff , this also help people to calm them self improving patience's and being better in what ever conditions they have..

In conclusion, competition can increase motivation, productivity and ambition, whereas cooperation promotes teamwork, knowledge-sharing and stronger relationships. Although both are valuable, I believe that cooperation should generally be prioritized, with competition being used in a healthy and constructive way.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both sides of the discussion and state a position: competition can motivate people, while cooperation should generally be prioritised. The office-award example gives relevant support for the benefits of competition, and the conclusion summarises the contrast. However, the cooperation side is less fully explained: jealousy and accepting situations are mentioned, but the benefits of working together are not clearly illustrated or developed. Your opening also gives a somewhat mixed position by calling competition good while saying cooperation is excellent for the long term; clarify how these views fit together. Develop each side with a clear reason and a specific example, then maintain the same balanced position throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a concluding summary. Phrases such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” help signal the stages of the argument. However, progression within paragraphs is uneven. The first body paragraph becomes a very long example, making its main point difficult to follow, while the second moves quickly from jealousy to cooperation and personal patience without clear links. Some connections are also awkward, such as “But when people discuss that…” and “same if you get jealous.” Use shorter, focused sentences and make each paragraph follow a clear sequence: claim, explanation, and example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “healthy competition,” “performance,” “motivation,” “productivity,” “teamwork,” and “knowledge-sharing.” These terms help communicate the main contrast, and the conclusion shows some ability to summarise ideas in a concise way. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unclear, including “cooperate life,” “daily task,” “get a increment,” and “spiff.” Repetition of “competition” and “improve” also limits the range, while phrases such as “doing the work in right direction” are imprecise. Build a more reliable set of topic collocations and check that each word expresses the intended meaning; this will make your ideas easier to understand.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrastive opening and clauses introduced by “whereas” in the conclusion. However, complex sentences are often difficult to control, and frequent errors sometimes make the meaning hard to follow. For example, “he also do the same work as yours” has subject–verb agreement and comparison problems, while “this also help people to calm them self” contains agreement and pronoun-form errors. The opening sentence also joins several ideas without clear grammatical structure. Practise building accurate short sentences first, then combine them with controlled clauses. Pay particular attention to agreement, articles, pronouns, and sentence boundaries.

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