Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-03

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 consider that competition has great importance at work, at school and in everyday's life while in contrast, others believe that we should not encourage competition and must cooperate with each other in every matter.

One community of people believe that competition is a part of our daily life and every person is struggling hard enough to compete others in need of a good opportunity and they are preparing themeselves strong enough academically and socially to understand ups and downs of life and to compete with the obstacles of the life in order to become successful iun life. People think that a healthy competition should be present at a workplace, at school or in our daily lives and it motivates us to mold ourselves to achieve excellence in every task so every individual is trying to demonstrate himself or herself better than others.

While,some people consider that competition should not be a part of our life and they think that we should help and support each other in every part of life and does not compete with others to undervalue them. They believe that society develop with support, solitude and cooperation and we should not try to override others by distracting them or by cheating them but instead, we should try to serve people more and more with kindness.

I personally believe that we should respect competition as it has the capability to bring change in someone's else. For instance, I had known enough about a company which showed great motivation and changed their company atmosphere and made great improvements after watched their competitor's success criteria and ultimately they had earned great success in financial resources.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You discuss both perspectives and give a clear personal preference for competition, so the response addresses the main parts of the prompt. The first view is supported with the idea that competition motivates people to improve, and the company example gives your opinion some relevant support. However, the discussion is uneven: the benefits of cooperation are described mainly as helping and being kind, without explaining in detail how cooperation improves outcomes at work, school, or in daily life. Your final example is also difficult to assess because the company and the specific improvement are not identified. Develop each side with a clear, concrete explanation and make the example more precise to strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph for each view, and a concluding paragraph with your opinion. The contrast between the views is easy to follow, and phrases such as “While” and “For instance” help signal relationships between ideas. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes weakened by long, crowded sentences that combine several points, particularly in the first body paragraph. Some linking is also mechanical, and the final paragraph moves quickly from your opinion to the company example without clearly explaining the connection. Use shorter units to develop one point at a time, and make references and transitions more explicit so the argument flows more smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You attempt a range of vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “healthy competition,” “achieve excellence,” “cooperation,” and “financial resources.” These choices show an effort to express abstract ideas, but several word combinations are inaccurate or unnatural, which sometimes makes the meaning less clear. For example, “compete others,” “solitude and cooperation,” and “success criteria” do not convey your intended meanings naturally. There are also spelling errors such as “themeselves” and “iun,” alongside repeated use of general words such as “life” and “people.” Focus on accurate collocations and precise topic vocabulary; proofreading spelling and word forms will make your ideas easier to understand.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “while,” “and,” and “in order to.” However, complex sentences are often not controlled accurately, and errors occur frequently enough to make some passages difficult to read. For example, “every person is struggling … and they are preparing” shifts awkwardly between singular and plural reference, while “society develop” has a subject–verb agreement error. In “after watched their competitor's success criteria,” the verb pattern is incorrect, and “does not compete” does not agree with the plural subject “we.” Sentence boundaries and punctuation also need attention, as in “While,some.” Practise accurate agreement, verb forms, and sentence construction before adding more clauses.

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