Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-25

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)

It is argued that competetion at work, school and in daily life is beneficial, whereas others suggest that coorpertion is more favourable. Both views have its pros and cons. This essay will cover both views, and in my opinion, competition is more valuable in long term.

On one hand, competion often gets an individual student good grades by having constant focus in their studies. This leads to student wasting less time with groups which often skip studies to engage in other activities, such as, playing games, partying, etc. Employees often perform better when there is a competition at a workplace. This leads to company's growth and boost in employees' evaluation.

On ther other hand, too much competition leads to a jealousy factor in number of employees which occurs at a workplace. Therefore, employees often do not guide their colleagues, from which they can get promotional benefits. For example, salaries are not discussed at a workplace even if employees are of same designation. Nowadays, job market is tough, hence an employee wants to get better than their colleagues in order to avoid layoffs. Some students can not hande the competion, hence leading to a mental health problems at a young age. This leads to number of bad grades for a student. Teachers at school should handle these students and give them a private classes in order for a student to stay competitive.

Coorperation also have its benefits, for example many top companies work in a group. Doctors are another example, a surgery can not happen individually, doctors and nurses work together in a group.

To conclude, competition helps a person grow, motivated and stay disciplined, whereas coorperation helps in groups. But I believe competion can help a person in long term.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You discuss both competition and cooperation and state a clear preference for competition in the introduction and conclusion. Relevant examples include workplace performance, students’ grades, and teamwork among doctors. However, the discussion is uneven: the benefits of cooperation are only briefly illustrated, while the competition points are not always explained clearly. For instance, the claim that competition helps students by making them spend less time with groups is asserted rather than supported, and the advice that teachers should provide private classes does not clearly explain how this addresses the pressure of competition. Develop each main point with a clearer explanation and a specific example, and make your comparison of the two views more explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a conclusion. Signposts such as “On one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “To conclude” help readers follow the broad direction. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the discussion moves from workplace jealousy to salaries, job insecurity, student mental health, and private classes without sufficiently connecting these points. The cooperation paragraph is also much shorter and less developed than the competition discussion. Some linking phrases, including repeated uses of “This leads to,” make the connections feel mechanical. Group related ideas more carefully and use transitions that show whether an example explains, contrasts with, or results from the preceding point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “competition,” “cooperate,” “promotional benefits,” “job market,” and “mental health.” These choices show an attempt to discuss workplace and educational contexts, but the range is limited and several spelling and word-choice errors reduce accuracy. Examples include “competetion,” “coorpertion,” and “hande,” as well as the unnatural phrase “a jealousy factor.” Some expressions are also imprecise, such as “employees’ evaluation” and “stay competitive” when describing support for students. Check spelling carefully and choose more natural collocations. A broader set of precise terms for collaboration, workplace performance, and academic pressure would help express the ideas more clearly and flexibly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including cause-and-effect structures such as “This leads to…” and a conditional idea about employees wanting to outperform colleagues. However, errors in agreement, articles, plurals, and sentence construction occur throughout and sometimes make relationships between ideas difficult to follow. For example, “Both views have its pros and cons” has a subject–pronoun agreement problem, while “Coorperation also have its benefits” has subject–verb agreement errors. “Some students can not hande the competion, hence leading to a mental health problems” combines an awkward clause with an article and number error. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, correct agreement, and appropriate articles, while keeping complex sentences manageable.

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