Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-30

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)

Some people believe that it is a good thing to compete at work, at school and in daily life. Others think that we should cooperate more, rather than competing against each other. I believe that we should cooperate with everyone in every aspect of life.

On the one hand, some people believe that competition at school, at work, and in daily life is a good thing. If students compete with each other in schools, they will try to do better than others. Competition motivates students to perform better because they spend more time studying and improving their skills. For instance, students may prepare regularly for exams to achieve higher grades and win awards. Furthermore, employees in an organization work harder to get a promotion. If an employee achieves their sales target, then the company increases his salary or offers him a holiday package. Due to this, the productivity of the company increases they give bonus and promotions to their employees. In daily life, if individuals compete with each other, they become more confident because if a person takes part in a sports competition they have to perform under pressure. In addition, they set goals and make greater efforts to achieve them.

On the other hand, some people believe that we should cooperate with each other, rather than competing. Students should cooperate with each other to complete different tasks. For instance, if intelligent students help weaker classmates with difficult subjects, all students can boost their academic performance. Additionally, employees can share knowledge with their other colleagues to solve problems. Some people also agree that teamwork enhances the quality of the work. People should help their neighbors and friends because this will create strong relationships with them.

To conclude, competition is essential in some aspects of life, but I believe that people should cooperate with others rather than competing against each other.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both views and state a clear opinion: “we should cooperate with everyone” and, in the conclusion, that cooperation should be preferred. The discussion of competition includes relevant examples from school, work and daily life, while the cooperation paragraph explains benefits for classmates, colleagues and relationships. This covers the task, but some points are more fully supported than others. The school and workplace examples explain how competition can improve performance, whereas the point about confidence through sports is asserted rather than explored. Similarly, the cooperation examples would be stronger if you explained why collaboration should take priority despite the benefits of competition. Develop that comparison to make your position more fully reasoned. The response meets the stated length requirement; the 24 words copied from the prompt are excluded from the count.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a conclusion. “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “To conclude” make the main stages easy to follow. Within paragraphs, however, progression is sometimes mechanical because several points are added with “Furthermore,” “In addition,” and “Additionally” without showing how they relate or which is most important. The sentence about company productivity—“Due to this, the productivity of the company increases they give bonus and promotions”—also joins ideas unclearly, interrupting the flow. Use clearer sentence boundaries and link examples explicitly to the point they support. More varied referencing and transitions between claims would make the organisation feel more controlled.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for discussing education, employment and cooperation, with relevant terms such as “promotion,” “productivity,” “academic performance” and “teamwork.” Meaning remains clear throughout. However, some wording is repetitive or imprecise: “compete” and “cooperate” recur frequently, and phrases such as “do better than others” and “help their neighbors and friends” are quite general. There are also collocation and word-choice problems, including “share knowledge with their other colleagues” and “achieve their sales target” where more natural phrasing would improve precision. Build a wider set of expressions for describing collaboration and competitive outcomes, and check that word combinations sound natural in context. This would make the discussion more flexible and precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex forms, including conditional sentences such as “If students compete … they will try to do better” and clauses beginning with “because” and “if.” Most ideas are understandable, but some grammatical errors remain. In “the productivity of the company increases they give bonus and promotions,” two independent clauses are joined without appropriate punctuation or a linking word. “If an employee achieves their sales target, then the company increases his salary” also shifts from plural-neutral “their” to “his.” In “if intelligent students help weaker classmates … all students can boost,” the subject and meaning are clear, but the sentence could be expressed more precisely. Review sentence boundaries, pronoun consistency and article/plural use, while continuing to practise varied complex structures.

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.