Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-27

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)

Some people believe that competition at school is good thing while others believe that cooperation is more useful.Both opinions have several advantages,but it is the believe that the balance between competition and cooperation is important.

On the one hand,a sense of competition in children is an integral part.Competitive environments in schools to help children to gain good marks in class. It helps to achieve awards on school and also in sports competition.Children gain your goals as a good competitor.Like a student getting good marks in school is form of competition.It also help in adult life during job finding because in the job market has diverse competition.

On the other hand,cooperation is the more useful.for example,students they cooperate with each other is the best way to understand the adult life. Because help each other is the best way to understand the problems of others.Another example is the work in office like staff can work cooperatively is the oppourtunity to help one another. Todays our society depends on the team work.

Furthermore,competition and cooperation both have valueable but I think cooperate with each other is a good thing as compared to competition beacause competition makes jealousy among children and also anxiety.Cooperative values has more precious and mentally refreshed.

In conclusion,both competition and cooperation important in life. Competition provides more hard work while cooperation builds social skills and help others.However,cooperative child are likely to be more useful in practical life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You discuss both sides and give a personal view, especially when you say that competition can encourage children to achieve and that cooperation builds social skills. However, the position is not fully consistent: the introduction says balance is important, while the later paragraph favours cooperation, so your overall stance needs to be stated clearly and maintained. Several points are relevant but under-developed. For instance, you mention that competition helps with job finding, but do not explain how this works or give a specific example. The response also contains 237 words, below the required 250, so it does not meet the task’s length requirement. Develop each main point with explanation or an example, and add enough relevant detail to complete the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for competition and cooperation, a paragraph giving your preference, and a conclusion. This helps the reader identify the two views. You also use basic signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion.” However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear, and some links feel mechanical or incomplete. For example, “Because help each other is the best way…” is not smoothly connected to the preceding sentence, while “Furthermore” introduces a point that largely repeats the preference for cooperation. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, as in “It helps to achieve awards.” Use complete, logically connected sentences and make each paragraph develop one main idea in a clear sequence.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “competitive environments,” “job market,” “team work,” “jealousy,” and “anxiety.” These choices show an attempt to discuss both educational and workplace contexts. However, the range is limited, and several word-choice, collocation, word-form, and spelling errors make the writing less natural. Examples include “good thing” without an article, “awards on school,” “valuable” misspelled as “valueable,” and “cooperative child” where a plural or broader expression is needed. Repetition of “good,” “help,” and “competition/cooperation” also restricts precision. Build a wider set of accurate topic phrases and check spelling and collocations; this will make your ideas easier to understand and more convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a contrast between the two views and a reason introduced with “because.” However, the range is limited, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. For example, “Competitive environments in schools to help children” is missing a finite verb, and “students they cooperate with each other is the best way” has problems with clause structure and agreement. There are also recurring errors with articles, plurals, and verb forms, as in “cooperation both have” and “cooperative child are.” Punctuation spacing is inconsistent, particularly after commas and full stops. Practise building accurate subject–verb–object sentences first, then add subordinate clauses and check agreement and articles.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.