Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-14

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 6.5)

A geoup of people suggest that having competition in schools or at work is a good thing while other people says that we should try to help each other instead of having a competition. I agree with the former group of people.

To begin with, the group of people who suggest competiton claims that it is a good motivation for people to outperform. For example, if there is an atmosphere of competition at a job place, it would push people to come out of their comfort zones and perform exceptionally. Eventually, this would also provide people with an opportunity to grow and learn many attributes.

However, the other group of people who are against this view of competition, says that competition gives rise to rivalry. Most of the time, people go beyond moral standards only to win. Similarly, they suggest that there should be harmony and cooperation between workers. If the people at work place start helping each other then all of them would get opportunities to flourish together.

In my opinion, I believe that a healthy competition is a very good thing for outstanding performance. Professional jealousy is fine if it is not effecting the relationships outside of the working environment. However, if people start taking it personally then it causes severe harms and lead to mental disturbance. I believe harmony must not be mistaken for taking advantage. Everyone should be courteous and helpful but not at the cost of their own performance. For instance, a brilliant student of class must help the weaker students but he must be mindful of his own preparation and time. He should not be assisting other fellows at the cost of his own energy. Additionally, if there is not be a competition in class then how other students would be challanged to perform well.

All in all, I strongly believe that a healthy competition must be present at work and school which would eventually help all to grow and learn many positive qualities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You address both sides of the discussion and state a clear preference for competition in the opening and conclusion. The benefits of competition are supported with workplace examples, while the opposing view is represented through concerns about rivalry and the value of cooperation. Your own position is also qualified: you support healthy competition but warn against personal jealousy and stress that helping others should not undermine one’s own performance. These points meet the task well. To strengthen the response further, develop the cooperation argument with a more specific explanation of how collaboration can improve outcomes, and clarify the distinction between healthy competition and “professional jealousy,” which can sound contradictory to your positive stance.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, a paragraph explaining your opinion, and a concluding summary. Ideas generally progress logically, and signposts such as “To begin with,” “However,” “In my opinion,” and “All in all” help readers follow the argument. The example of a student helping classmates also supports the point about balancing cooperation with personal goals. At times, however, the links between ideas are more additive than explanatory. For instance, the move from professional jealousy to harmony and then to the student example could be connected more explicitly. Aim to show how each example or qualification develops the central argument, rather than relying mainly on transition phrases.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “outperform,” “comfort zones,” “rivalry,” “harmony,” “flourish,” and “courteous.” These choices allow you to discuss motivation, conflict, and cooperation with some variety. However, several word-choice and collocation issues reduce precision, such as “a good motivation,” “job place,” “severe harms,” and “taking advantage” where the intended meaning is not fully clear. There are also spelling errors, including “geoup,” “competiton,” and “challanged.” These do not prevent understanding, but careful proofreading and more natural combinations would improve control. Build a bank of topic-specific collocations and check that each phrase expresses the intended relationship accurately.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures such as “If the people at work place start helping each other…” and a concession introduced by “However.” Most ideas remain understandable, and the response shows an attempt to vary sentence structure. Some grammatical errors persist, though. For example, “other people says” has a subject–verb agreement error, “if there is not be a competition” has an incorrect verb construction, and “it causes severe harms and lead” contains problems with the noun form and verb agreement. There are also article and sentence-boundary issues in places. Review agreement, conditional forms, and verb patterns, then proofread each sentence to improve accuracy while retaining your complex structures.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.