Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-15

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)

some people believe that competing each pther at every stage and of life is a beneficial thing, while others argue that individuals should be cooperating with each other rather than competing against each other. competition at various stages like school, job and daily activities help people to build stamina to deal with hardships of today's competitive world but i believe that being extra competitive in every factor of life can also result in creating a sense of insecurity, excessive hate and jealousy. Thus, cooperating is a better aproach

Individual who are competitive in life are likely to out perform others in order to succeed and prove themselves to be better than others. Competition forces people to work hard and bring the best out of themselves. For instance if you are in a sports and you are aware that your opponent is very good at game so you will put more efforts and try compete at the same level. However, that still not gurantees the desired outcome.

on the other hand, individuals trying to reach the calliber of others around them are prone to feeling insecure of themselves. people always cempeting each other will end up hating each other. Toxic environment of schools and work places is a consequence of unhealthy competition. As for example, two employees constantly trying to pull each other down while competeing for promotion will create a toxic job environment. So people should help each other in growing meanwhile performing as best as they can.

in conclusion competition in different sectors is necassary at a healthy and functional level to motivate everyone to perform better.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the discussion and give a clear preference for cooperation, while recognising that healthy competition can motivate people to improve. The sports example illustrates this motivating effect, and the employee example supports your concern about rivalry creating a toxic workplace. However, the two views are not developed equally: the benefits of cooperation are mostly implied through the criticism of unhealthy competition, rather than explained directly. Your conclusion also focuses on competition being necessary and does not restate your preference for cooperation, so the final position is less clear than it is in the introduction. Explain how cooperation benefits people and clarify how it can coexist with healthy competition to develop the response more fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs discussing competition and its drawbacks, and a conclusion. Linking phrases such as “For instance” and “on the other hand” help signal examples and contrast. However, progression is sometimes mechanical, and the relationship between ideas is not always clear. The second body paragraph moves from insecurity to hatred and then to workplace toxicity without fully explaining each connection. The conclusion introduces a balanced view of healthy competition, but does not clearly connect it to your earlier preference for cooperation. Use clearer topic sentences and develop each paragraph around one main point, with references that make the links between claims and examples explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for the topic, including “competitive,” “outperform,” “insecurity,” “toxic environment,” and “promotion.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, and some phrases show an attempt to express more specific concepts. However, spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable, including “pther,” “aproach,” “gurantees,” and “calliber.” Some combinations are also unnatural, such as “competing each other” and “reach the calliber of others.” These inaccuracies sometimes make the reader pause, even though the overall meaning remains understandable. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations for competition and cooperation, such as “compete with others” and “meet the standard set by peers.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrastive opening and conditional structures such as “if you are in a sports … you will put more efforts.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in sentence construction, agreement, articles, and punctuation sometimes make the ideas harder to follow. For example, “competition … help people” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “people always cempeting each other” lacks a finite verb. Several sentences also run together or begin without capital letters, and the conditional example shifts into direct address. Practise building complete sentences with clear subjects and verbs, and review agreement, articles, and punctuation. More accurate control of these patterns would make your varied structures easier to understand.

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