Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-05

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people believe that international sports events, such as The Olympics or the Football World Cup, are a good way to bring countries together. Others say that these events create competition, not friendship, between countries.

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 6.0)

A significant number of people believe that international sports events are chance to bring different nations together in a cordial manner, meanwhile a group of people advocates that such competition at international level results in neck-to-neck competition, rather than friendship. This essay will discuss both view points, before putting forward my own perspectives.

There is a craze of watching sports at international level. And people wait eagerly for these events to commence every year. That is the reason, why today number of sports are organised at international levels. Take cricket for example. Today cricket has multiple formats played at international position, like, Test cricket, Asian Championship and even ODIs. Same goes with popular sports like, football, hockey, and even chess. Popularity of sports played at international podium is so much that these sports are broadcasted live at various platform. Moreover, in addition to their popularity, international sports are also medium of encouraging friendship among countries at a single platform. When different countries collaborate to play together, they are just not engaging themselves in sports, additionally, they are also exchanging their culture, their food and their traditions with each others. This not only helps players from various nations to learn about other countries food and culture, but they also learn to respect the diversities of cultures. Furthermore, playing at international platform also boost the economy of various nations, as these sports keep changing their venue every year. Therefore, undoubtedly sports played at international platform brings people of various countries together.

Conversely, there are a few people who believe that international sports events results in competition rather than friendship. Needless to say, that when a event happens between different nations, it becomes do and die situation for them as they have to win if they want to survive in the tournament. Therefore, there is no scope of friendship between countries exists when on field. Countries act as a tuff competitors for each others, to make there place for the next round of event. That is why we often witnesses the clash between players on and off the fields. If we all remember, during Indian Primere League (IPL) of 2023, a clash between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli was well witnessed by thousands of viewers on field and both these players were part of different international teams at that time. Both teams wanted to survive for the next round of tournament and hence, one wrong decision resulted in arguments and physical tussle between players. Furthermore, every player wants to bring laurel to their countries by winning medals and trophies at international platforms and hence, they have no choice but to be a tuff competitors.

At the end, both views put forward are valid, but I strongly believe that international sports events brings more competition than friendship as there is a race to win, which can be achieved only if there is tuff competition rather than friendships among players.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both perspectives and providing a clear personal opinion. The ideas are relevant, such as cultural exchange and the pressure of competition. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The example provided regarding the Indian Premier League (IPL) is slightly off-topic, as the IPL is a domestic franchise tournament, not an international event like the Olympics or World Cup. While the position is clear, the supporting arguments could be more nuanced to reach a higher band. The essay maintains a consistent focus on the prompt throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs. There is a progression of ideas from the introduction to the body paragraphs and the conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Conversely', 'Moreover', and 'Therefore', although some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive. The use of referencing is generally clear, though some sentence structures are a bit clunky, which occasionally affects the flow. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two opposing views and the writer's own stance.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use less common collocations like 'cordial manner' and 'neck-to-neck competition', though some word choices are imprecise or non-standard, such as 'tuff' (should be 'tough') and 'international position' (should be 'international level'). The repetition of phrases like 'international platform' and 'various nations' limits the range. While communication is never impeded, the lexical variety is somewhat restricted for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('a event', 'the international level'), subject-verb agreement ('events results'), and word forms ('tuff' instead of 'tough', 'there' instead of 'their'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some awkward comma placements. While the meaning is always clear, the frequency of these minor errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. The control over complex structures is inconsistent.

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