Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-26

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)

Competition is a driving force. Some people believe that competition encourages improvement, while other argues that people should cooperate more instead of always competing against each other. In my opinion, no doubt competition has it own advantages, but cooperation is more beneficial overall because it promotes teamwork and shared success.

Competition motivates people to improve their performance it helps people to strive and work hard to be a better version of themselves. For example, at school a student who want to get a scholorship may study hard to improve his academics results so his possibility of winning the scholorship improves. At work employees, may become more productive becaus eof competition. For instance, if they see their colleagues working hard it will motivate them to strive harder too. Competition encourages people to develop new skills and discover their potential.

However, cooperation helps people achieve common goals and solve problems more effectively. People share knowledge their skills and idead it helps everyone in their surronding to learn and grow. Team work reduce individual pressure and allow people to learn from each other. Excessive competition can cause jealousy, hatred and unhealthy relationships.For example, in a workplace , empolyees working together in a team have a great opportunity to combine their expertise and solve a problem efficently.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both sides of the question and state a clear preference for cooperation, supported by relevant examples from school and the workplace. The discussion of competition explains how it can motivate effort and skill development, while the cooperation paragraph identifies shared learning and reduced pressure. However, several points are asserted rather than fully explained: for example, the scholarship example could show more clearly how competition benefits the student, and the workplace example of teamwork does not explain the outcome of combining expertise. The response also falls short of the required minimum length, so the ideas and examples remain under-developed. Extend each main point with explanation and a more specific example, and make your final position explicit in a concluding paragraph.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph on competition, and a paragraph on cooperation. The contrast signalled by “However” helps readers follow the shift between the two views, and examples are placed alongside the relevant claims. At times, though, ideas run together or their relationships are not clearly marked. In “Competition motivates people to improve their performance it helps people to strive,” two complete ideas need clearer punctuation or a linking word. The cooperation paragraph also moves quickly from sharing knowledge to pressure and then to workplace teamwork. Use clearer sentence boundaries and develop one point at a time; a concluding paragraph would also give the essay a more complete progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for the topic, including “driving force,” “common goals,” “shared success,” and “individual pressure.” These phrases help communicate the contrast between competition and cooperation. However, spelling errors and imprecise or awkward word combinations are noticeable, such as “scholorship,” “becaus eof,” “idead,” and “in their surronding.” Some expressions could also be more natural and precise: “improve his academics results” and “a great opportunity to combine their expertise” are understandable but not well controlled. Proofread spelling carefully and choose collocations that express the intended meaning directly. More precise vocabulary would make the examples clearer and strengthen the academic tone.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more developed sentence forms, including a reason clause in “because it promotes teamwork and shared success” and a conditional example beginning “if they see their colleagues working hard.” However, errors in sentence boundaries, agreement, articles, and verb forms occur often enough to affect fluency. For example, “Competition motivates people to improve their performance it helps…” joins two clauses without suitable punctuation, while “a student who want” needs subject–verb agreement and “Team work reduce” needs a plural subject or singular verb form. There are also missing commas and spaces around punctuation. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, and use full stops or conjunctions to connect complete clauses.

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