Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

Most individual think that competition at work place, school and in daily life is one of the good thing while other people believe that we should focus on cooperation and not focusing on competing against each other. In my own opnion, competition at work, school and daily life is a good thing since it enables people to work hard in order to be the best.

Competition at workplace enables people to work hard and provide quality service in order to be the best. For instance, working as a customer service agent normally you need to meet the daily KPIs in order to get some bonuses through competition it motivates the customer care agent to serve people well provide quality service. On the other hand, teachers are encouraging students to perform well on their studies through competition on classroom by setting targets on students so that they can achieve and win some prizes this motivates students to work hard in order to prosper on their students hence perfoming well. On the other hand they people compete it leds to people engaging on different activities that are not good in order to be the best, for instance some will engage of fraudulent actions in order to finance their lifestyle and be the best in the society.

Cooperation at work place is key since it encourage team work and sharing of ideas and when workmates share great ideas as a team it lead to quality work done. Consequantly, when students work together they are able to share new ideas and how to tackle different assignments and this will enable them learn more about communication skills and perfom well on their exams and assignments.

In conclusion, competition in work place and school is good but the competition should be health so that people and student can perform well. Cooperation is key since it encourages team building, team work and great communication skills.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the question and state a clear preference for competition in the introduction and conclusion. The workplace example about customer-service targets and bonuses, and the classroom example about prizes, make your argument relevant. You also recognise a drawback—fraudulent behaviour—and explain how cooperation can support teamwork and learning. However, the discussion is uneven: the risks of competition are mentioned briefly, without explaining how they might be prevented or weighed against its benefits, and the cooperation paragraph gives benefits but no specific example. To strengthen the response, develop each view more evenly and explain why your preferred approach is best, perhaps by arguing that healthy competition works most effectively when combined with cooperation.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, discussion of competition, a paragraph on cooperation, and a conclusion. The main ideas are generally easy to follow, and examples help connect claims to explanations. However, progression within the competition paragraph is less clear: it moves from workplace benefits to school benefits and then to harmful behaviour, while “On the other hand” is used twice without clearly signalling the relationship between those points. Some links are also awkward or repetitive, such as “in order to” and repeated references to working hard. Use topic sentences to distinguish benefits from drawbacks, and choose more precise transitions such as “A potential disadvantage is…” This would make the organisation more controlled and the links between ideas clearer.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main points, including “competition,” “cooperation,” “quality service,” “team work,” and “fraudulent actions.” These choices show awareness of the subject, but the range is limited and several phrases are repeated or used inaccurately. Examples include “perform well on their studies,” “prosper on their students,” and “the competition should be health”; these expressions make parts of the argument less natural or precise. There are also spelling and word-form slips, including “opnion,” “perfoming,” and “Consequantly.” Aim for more accurate collocations and vary repeated wording. For example, describe students as “achieving strong academic results” and refer to “healthy competition” rather than “competition should be health.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including clauses introduced by “since,” “so that,” and “when,” which helps you explain causes and results. However, control is inconsistent, and errors in agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence construction sometimes make the meaning difficult to follow. For example, “Most individual think” needs a plural subject and verb, while “it encourage team work” should use a verb agreeing with “it.” The sentence beginning “through competition it motivates…” also needs clearer clause structure and punctuation. Practise checking subject–verb agreement and building long sentences around one clear main clause. More accurate sentence boundaries and a wider range of controlled complex structures would improve clarity.

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