Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-10

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)

In the contemporary world, competition at workplace, at university and in day to day life has become a significant topic of discussion. While some argue that competition brings numerous benefits, others believe that competition has negative impact. In my opinion the advantages of competative enviroment has some positive asspects.

On the one hand, there are clear benefits of this trend. The primarary advantage is that people are become more productive. This is because, individual wants to do more than competative person. For example, at the school student tries to get higher score than other students, for that student needs to do study more than other classmates. Scholar spends more time to do studies than watching mobile which help them to get good marks. Secondly, individual can work on there weak skills, such as help to adapt things more fastly. For example, in corporate employees need to learn new skills quickly to perform better. Quickly adapting to new changes can help them to recongnised by manager.

On the other hand, certain drawbacks should not be ignored. The main disadvantage is that, less bonding with team members or with classmates. In other words, due to competative environment people are less connected with each other. For instance, to do some team activity with co-worker, they both need to understand each other working style, however weaker bonding may affect on work.

In conclusion, although competition at organisation, at school and in daily life has obvious drawbacks related to some issues like poor bonding and toxic work environment, the positive asspects are much more significant. In my opinion competition will continue to be benefits for individual in the future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You present a clear overall preference for competition, and you discuss benefits as well as a drawback. The examples about students studying to achieve higher scores and employees learning new skills are relevant and help explain your view. However, the task asks you to discuss both competition and cooperation, and cooperation is not developed as a distinct viewpoint; the paragraph about weaker bonds only briefly suggests why cooperation matters. Some claims, such as competition improving adaptability, are also asserted more than fully explained. To strengthen the response, explain the case for cooperation directly—for example, how sharing knowledge can improve team outcomes—and develop your own position with a more balanced comparison of when each approach is useful.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph on benefits, a paragraph on drawbacks, and a conclusion. Signposts such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” make the overall direction easy to follow. Within paragraphs, however, the progression is sometimes mechanical, and links between claims and examples are not always clear. For instance, the move from students’ study habits to employees’ adaptability introduces separate points without showing how they connect. Some references, such as “that student” and “they both,” are also unclear. Use topic sentences that identify each paragraph’s main idea, then explain and illustrate it in a more deliberate sequence, with precise referencing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “productive,” “weak skills,” “team members,” and “toxic work environment,” so the main ideas are generally understandable. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors make the writing less natural. Examples include “competitive person,” “do study,” “recognised by manager,” and repeated use of “competition” and “environment.” Spelling errors such as “competative,” “asspects,” and “recongnised” are noticeable. Build a more accurate set of phrases for discussing collaboration and workplace outcomes, and check spelling carefully. For example, use “outperform their peers,” “study harder,” and “gain recognition from their manager” in place of the less natural expressions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional-style explanation beginning “This is because” and a contrast introduced by “although.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction are frequent enough to make some sentences difficult to read. For example, “people are become more productive” should be “people become more productive,” while “individual wants” needs plural agreement or an article. In “for that student needs to do study more,” the sentence structure and verb pattern are faulty. Practise building accurate subject–verb patterns and checking articles and plurals, then use complex clauses only when you can control their grammar. Clearer sentence boundaries will also improve readability.

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