Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-16

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)

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. International sports events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup can unite nations through shared cultural experiences, but they can also spark fierce rivalries and nationalism.View 1: International Sports Bring Countries TogetherShared passion: Millions of people watch the same games. This creates a global sense of community.Cultural exchange: Host nations showcase their heritage to visitors and television audiences.The Olympic Truce: The modern Olympics revive the ancient Greek tradition of halting conflicts during the games. This symbolizes a temporary pause in global hostilities.Example: The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang featured a joint women's ice hockey team from North Korea and South Korea, which showed how sports can build a brief bridge between divided states.View 2: Events Create Competition and ConflictNationalism: Governments use medals and victories to prove political and social superiority.Hostility on the field: Intense rivalries can lead to aggressive fan behavior, cheating scandals, and diplomatic tensions.Financial strain: Hosting these massive events often diverts public funds from local needs, creating resentment.Example: The "Football War" of 1969 broke out between Honduras and El Salvador following a tense series of World Cup qualifying matches, proving that sports can inflame underlying political conflicts

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both views—that sports bring countries together and that they create competition and conflict—while implicitly taking a balanced stance. However, the format used is unconventional, relying on bullet points and sub-headings rather than traditional essay paragraphs. Despite this structural choice, the content itself is well-developed with relevant examples, such as the 2018 Winter Olympics joint ice hockey team and the historical 'Football War' of 1969. The ideas are extended and supported effectively, demonstrating a solid understanding of the task requirements. Overall, the content fully meets the criteria for a Band 6.5 to 7.0, but the layout detracts slightly from a seamless essay flow.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The text is organised into distinct sections corresponding to the prompt requirements, making the overall arrangement coherent. However, the reliance on bullet points and explicit labels like 'View 1' and 'View 2' creates a segmented appearance rather than a fluid, cohesive essay structure. While the logical progression within each section is clear, the cohesive devices connecting the broader arguments are somewhat mechanical or missing due to the list-like format. Paragraphing is unusual for an IELTS task 2 response, which typically expects standard prose paragraphs with clear transitional sentences. This impacts the overall flow, placing the response firmly in the Band 6 range for this criterion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate and generally appropriate range of vocabulary for the task. Words and phrases such as 'cultural exchange', 'global hostilities', 'underlying political conflicts', and 'nationalism' show a good grasp of topic-specific terminology. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary used with reasonable accuracy, such as 'diverts public funds' and 'inflame underlying political conflicts'. Minor issues with word choice do not impede communication. The lexical range is sufficient to allow flexibility and precision, easily satisfying the requirements for Band 6.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The response exhibits a good mix of simple and complex sentence forms. The writer successfully employs relative clauses, participial phrases, and conditional structures, such as in 'International sports events like the Olympics... can unite nations' and 'proving that sports can inflame underlying political conflicts'. Grammatical accuracy is generally high, with the majority of sentences being free of major errors. Punctuation is mostly accurate, though spacing issues appear occasionally due to the bullet-point formatting. Control over grammar is solid, supporting a Band 7.0 classification for this criterion.

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