Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-21

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)

A few people believe that competition at work, school and in daily life is a beneficial thing while others argue that they should try to cooperate more. In my opinion, both are important because competition can give an opportunity to demonstrate their skills although cooperating more can develop the community.

On the one hand, participating in various types of competition at work, school and in regular life can give an opportunity to show their skills. Also it can provide enough ideas to participate in different types of co-curricular activities. For example, if students join many competitions in their regular life, they will show their practical skills to others. As a result, general public can learn something about sports or other co-curricular activities and the mentality of the participants will become more strong.

On the other hand, cooperating more in different tasks have a significant impact on the society although people can make a strong relation with the community. The public will get sufficient help if this approach gets well and it will improve their community. For example, if students co-operate more with the general public, they can solve some of the problems which effects badly to the society such as pollution. Thus, the environment will be developed and the community public may live a better life.

In my opinion, Competition and co-operating should be balanced as competition help the students to demonstrate their skills to others while co-operating more can develop the society and it can give them a relatively peaceful environment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the question and state a clear view: competition can showcase skills, while cooperation can benefit society. The two body paragraphs are relevant, and the examples about student activities and tackling pollution help illustrate your points. However, the discussion is not equally developed: the benefits of competition are explained mainly through showing skills, while the cooperation paragraph makes broad claims about community improvement without explaining how people would work together or why this is more effective than competing. Your opinion that the two should be balanced is clear, but it would be stronger if you explained when each approach is most useful and supported that judgement with a more specific example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a concluding opinion. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In my opinion” makes the progression easy to follow, and examples are placed alongside the relevant arguments. This meets the lower-band expectation for clear organisation and shows some of the flexibility associated with stronger cohesion. However, links between claims are sometimes mechanical, particularly the repeated “For example” and “As a result/Thus” patterns. Some references are also unclear, such as “this approach” and “they” in the cooperation paragraph. Use more precise links between cause and effect, and make pronoun references explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including topic-related terms such as “competition,” “cooperate,” “community,” and “pollution.” There are also attempts at less common or more formal expressions, such as “significant impact” and “demonstrate their skills.” However, several phrases are imprecise or unnatural, which limits the range and control: “the mentality of the participants will become more strong” and “the community public may live a better life” do not express the intended ideas naturally. Repetition of “different types,” “students,” and “community” also makes the vocabulary less flexible. Aim for precise collocations and vary repeated wording; the suggestions below offer useful alternatives.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “although,” “if,” and “while.” Most sentences remain understandable, and the errors do not generally prevent the reader from following your argument. Some grammatical problems are present, however. For example, “cooperating more in different tasks have” has a subject–verb agreement error, and “competition help the students” should use a singular verb. In “problems which effects badly,” the relative clause has an incorrect verb form and agreement. There are also inconsistent capitalisation choices, such as “Competition” in the middle of a sentence. Check agreement carefully and proofread sentence boundaries and capitalisation while retaining your attempts at complex structures.

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