Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-16

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 6.0)

Some people have an opinion that being competitive at work, school and in daily life is a good thing, whereas others believe that cooperation is more important than competing against each other. Let's discuss both point of views and give our opinion on it.

Firstly, competition is important in life. It pushes you towards hardwork and success. The system around us has been design to compete, wether it is at work, school or daily life tasks. Competition pushes a person to be more serious in his field and it is the main factor that differentiate between the people. Most things in this world are decided through merit. For instance, civil services exam are very tough. Only about 2 percent of the total candidates get alloted a seat in the government jobs. If the exam are not made competitive than majority will pass the exam, which defies the point of taking the best of the best candidate from the thousands of applicants.

Secondly, others have a view that cooperation is more important than competition. In daily life tasks people should cooperate with each other. Not everything requires competition. General tasks like helping a collegue at work or a student stuck in his studies is a good thing. Cooperation is very important to make the life easy for a human. For example, the officer at Nadra office was very cooperative and dealt us in a very polite manner. I had an issue in my smartcard, which he fixed in few minutes without putting stress or pressure on me. I was very hesitant, but he made sure that I remain relaxed and composed.

In conclusion, competition is good in important tasks of life such as exams or a promotion. But being competitive in normal everyday tasks is not required.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both views and give a clear position: competition is useful for important goals, while cooperation suits ordinary tasks. The civil-service examination example supports your argument that competition can select candidates on merit, and the NADRA example illustrates the value of helpful, considerate service. However, the two sides are not developed equally. The competition paragraph explains selection in detail, whereas the cooperation paragraph relies mainly on one personal incident and could explain more broadly how cooperation benefits workplaces or schools. Your conclusion restates your position, but the distinction between “important” and “normal” tasks could be made more precise. The response meets the task requirements, but fuller development of the less-developed view would strengthen it.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a conclusion. “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “In conclusion” make the progression easy to follow, and the examples are placed with the relevant arguments. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent organisation and shows some of the flexibility associated with stronger cohesion. However, the linking is somewhat formulaic, and some references are unclear: “it is the main factor” does not specify exactly what “it” refers to, while “the officer … dealt us” leaves the relationship between the people and the action imprecise. Develop smoother links between claims and examples, and use clearer referencing rather than relying mainly on sequencing words.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You communicate the main ideas with an adequate range of vocabulary, including relevant terms such as “merit,” “competitive,” “cooperate,” and “composed.” Some choices are effective in context, particularly the contrast between competition in examinations and cooperation in everyday interactions. However, several noticeable spelling and word-choice or collocation errors limit precision: “hardwork,” “wether,” “alloted,” and “collegue” are misspelled, while “the main factor that differentiate” and “made competitive” are awkwardly expressed. Repetition of “competition,” “important,” and “good” also makes the vocabulary less flexible. More accurate spelling, natural collocations, and a wider range of precise terms would make the argument sound more controlled.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex forms, including a contrast clause with “whereas,” a conditional sentence beginning “If the exam…,” and a relative clause in “a student stuck in his studies.” Meaning is generally clear, and the examples are expressed in complete sentences. Some grammatical errors remain, however: “has been design” needs a past participle, “exam are” has a subject–verb agreement problem, and “the main factor that differentiate” also needs agreement. Articles and plural forms are inconsistent in phrases such as “in few minutes” and “civil services exam.” There are also punctuation and sentence-boundary issues, including the comma splice in “I was very hesitant, but…” only if the intended relationship is not clearly marked. Check verb forms, agreement, and articles carefully while retaining your varied sentence structures.

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