Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-23

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 5.0)

People often face competition at different walks of their lifes either at work, at school and in daily life. It is always argued that it's a good initiative or have negative impacts on people.

I believe having healthy competition at any stage of life is a practical approach to educate our people about real life challenges. Winning or losing any contest in not the only target these types of activities are designed for individuals to develop strategic mindset, prepare future leaders and for self evaluation to make themselves better for upcoming life events.

In my opinion competition should always be on professional level instead of personal level like achieving sales target, securing A+ in O levels and any other. Competitors are not rivals they are just an ordinary participant and no one should have grudges for the one who won instead he/she should make them example and self evaluate their and own performance to understand where they are lacking.

Having empathy for other participants is a basic act of humanity, people should always treat them with respect, help them where required and learn from each other. Competition is all about mind set that how you perceive it some one take it as challenge and some one may take it an act of rivality just to proof someone that he or she is as good as the winner.

In my opinion competition should always be part of our daily life in all walks of human life to endure challenges and learn how to survive in different kind of situation and make them self better at what they are doing.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You give a clear personal view: competition can be useful when it is healthy and kept professional, and you mention benefits such as preparing people for challenges and encouraging self-evaluation. However, the task asks you to discuss both competition and cooperation, and cooperation receives only brief treatment in the sentence about empathy, respect and helping other participants. The opposing view is therefore not explained or supported in enough detail, and several claims about competition remain general rather than being illustrated with a developed example. To improve, explain why cooperation matters in a specific setting, compare its benefits with competition, and extend your examples. The response meets the required length; eight words copied from the task prompt were not counted.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a recognisable sequence: an introduction, paragraphs developing your view of competition and respectful conduct, and a concluding opinion. This gives the reader a basic sense of direction. However, the discussion does not progress clearly through both sides of the question: the cooperation point is embedded within a paragraph about competition rather than developed as a distinct argument. Connections between ideas are sometimes unclear, particularly in the long sentence beginning “Competitors are not rivals,” where several points are joined without a clear relationship. Repeated openings such as “In my opinion” also make the progression feel repetitive. Use a separate paragraph for cooperation, organise each paragraph around one main point, and use clearer links between claims and examples.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “healthy competition,” “strategic mindset,” “self evaluation,” “empathy,” and “professional level.” These choices show an attempt to discuss the issue beyond very basic terms. However, several expressions are inaccurate or unnatural, which limits precision: “different walks of their lifes,” “an act of rivality,” and “proof someone” do not convey the intended meaning naturally. Some wording is also vague, such as “different kind of situation.” Aim to learn common collocations and check word forms and spelling, especially when using less familiar vocabulary. More precise terms for cooperation and workplace or educational contexts would help you express the two sides of the argument more effectively.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of sentence types, including longer sentences with reasons and examples, and the main message is generally understandable. However, complex sentences are often difficult to follow because of errors in sentence construction and punctuation. For example, “Winning or losing any contest in not the only target these types of activities are designed for…” joins ideas without a suitable grammatical connection, while “some one take it” has a subject–verb agreement error. There are also problems with articles, plurals and sentence boundaries, as in “in different kind of situation.” These errors recur and sometimes make the reader work to identify the intended relationships. Practise building shorter, complete sentences first, then combine ideas using accurate conjunctions and punctuation.

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

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