Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-02

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 argue that competition at work, at school and in daily life is a good thing but,others believe that we should try to cooperate more, rather than competing against each other. in my opinion cooperation with each other is a best poilcy to achive anything because teamwork will always help you to better determine many concepts in difficult situations while, competition at work is good only for self achivements.

We should try to cooperate more with each other because this step will make the work easier and a good teamwork envirnment in different situations.If we are at work and our junior is facing any issues with his work we should try to help him in this situation because by doing this help an element of respect will be occured in his mind and this will motivate him to help others in difficult situations.for instance,if a company boss will assign a project to his team and the given time is short then the team will better handel this work by cooperating with each other.

On the other hand,if we focus on the competition at work and in our daily life it will be beneficial for the achivements of a person because competition will motivate a person to work hard and to make a good progress in his work to achive his desire goal but,for the long term achivement bonding with others and mutual understandings will help more.for example, if a person wants to achive a gold medal in his university by competing others this will motivate his inner beliefs to gain the achivement and a lesson for others.

In conclusion, although competing with others motivate the person but long term achivements will only be achived with the cooperation of others and by a good mutual understanding.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the question and state a clear preference for cooperation, especially in the opening and conclusion. The examples about a team completing a short-deadline project and a student pursuing a gold medal are relevant and help illustrate the two positions. However, the views are not developed equally: the benefits of cooperation are explained through respect and mutual help, while the discussion of competition is mostly limited to motivation and personal achievement. Some claims, such as cooperation being the best policy for achieving anything, are broad and would benefit from qualification or explanation. To strengthen the response, develop the consequences of each approach more fully and make the comparison between short-term individual gains and longer-term shared outcomes more precise.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for cooperation and competition, and a conclusion that restates your position. The progression from one view to the other is easy to follow, and phrases such as “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” signal the main stages. However, connections within sentences are sometimes awkward or mechanical, and several ideas are joined with commas where a full stop or clearer linking structure is needed. For example, the opening sentence runs together the two opposing views, while the cooperation paragraph moves from helping a junior to respect and then teamwork without clearly separating each step. Use shorter, more controlled sentences and clearer references to make the reasoning flow more smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “teamwork,” “competition,” “mutual understanding,” “motivate,” and “achievements.” This gives you enough language to communicate the main ideas, but the range is limited and some word choices or combinations are unnatural, which can make parts of the argument less clear. Examples include “a best policy,” “an element of respect will be occurred,” and “gain the achievement.” Spelling errors such as “poilcy,” “achive,” and “envirnment” are also noticeable. Build a more accurate range of collocations and check spelling carefully; for instance, use “the best approach,” “earn respect,” and “attain a goal” where appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including conditional structures such as “If we are at work…” and “if a person wants to achieve a gold medal…”. These attempts show some range, and the main message is generally understandable. However, some sentence structures are faulty or difficult to control. For example, “if a company boss will assign a project” uses an unsuitable verb form in the conditional, and “competition will motivate the person” does not agree with the plural idea in the preceding clause. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention, as in “a best policy” and the long opening sentence joined with commas. Practise accurate conditional patterns and divide long sentences into complete clauses with appropriate punctuation.

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