Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-20

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 5.5)

It is widely acknowledged that the internal sports events are an important way to bring countries together, while others oppose this. In my opinion it is quite right and these international events are a good source to understand culture and heritage of different countries. Here it has been discussed with both opinions, in detail.

Initially, we will discuss the viewpoint of those individuals who think that the countries evolve closure relationship with internation sports events, such as The Olympics and the Football World Cup. In their perspective, these international events are a good way of refreshment and entertainment along with a huge source of inter-country tourism. There is significantly a huge population who attends these events and travel cross the world to watch and enjoy these matches. This promotes the tourism and the people gets chance to meet with the indivuals who arrived from all over the world. It gives the chance to make relation and promote business.

On the other hand, some people believe that such events do not promote any friendship but create competitions between the countries. On some aspect they are also right, as it has been seen over some decades that the countries are in a race to showcase their modernism and architecture. They are building huge number of hotels, stadiums and other infrastructure for just a couple of months of that event and immidiately after the event is over, that infrastructure and hotels are no more in use. So in that perspective it seems the people with this opinion are also right that such events only create competition, not the friendship, between countries.

In conclusion, I think that international events, for instance, The Olympics, Cricket World Cup and Football World Cup etc. should be held priodically as they promotes tourism, business and friendship between the countries but we should also avoid to make it competition and a race to defeat the other nations.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—that international sports events bring countries together and that they create competition rather than friendship—while also offering a clear personal opinion. The position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the ideas are somewhat generalized and occasionally repetitive, such as when discussing tourism and infrastructure. For instance, the paragraph explaining the negative perspective touches on building hotels and stadiums for 'a couple of months,' which directly supports the argument regarding competition and waste. While the ideas are adequately extended and supported, they lack the depth and full development characteristic of a higher band. Overall, the response meets the core requirements of Task Achievement at a Band 6.5 level, successfully covering the prompt with relevant, albeit slightly underdeveloped, arguments.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at logical progression. The response is divided into logical paragraphs, starting with an introduction, followed by body paragraphs addressing each viewpoint, and concluding with a summary. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'Initially,' 'On the other hand,' and 'In conclusion,' though some referencing is slightly mechanical and awkward, as seen in phrases like 'Here it has been discussed with both opinions, in detail.' Paragraphing is used sufficiently, but the internal cohesion within paragraphs occasionally feels clunky. Pronoun referencing is generally clear, but some transitional phrases disrupt the natural flow. These limitations place the performance comfortably at a Band 6 for Coherence and Cohesion, as the organization is clear and logical despite some mechanical errors in linking ideas.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task. There are attempts to use less common lexical items, such as 'acknowledged,' 'infrastructure,' and 'periodically.' However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text. For example, the writer uses 'internal sports events' instead of 'international sports events' in the opening sentence, 'evolve closure relationship' instead of 'develop closer relationships,' and 'immidiately' (spelling error). Furthermore, phrases like 'a good source to understand' and 'a huge source of inter-country tourism' show restricted lexical flexibility. Despite these errors, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without severely impeding communication, aligning with the Band 6 descriptor for Lexical Resource.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, demonstrating some grammatical variety. Examples of complex forms include 'It is widely acknowledged that...' and 'while others oppose this.' However, the text contains a notable frequency of grammatical errors and awkward phrasing. Examples include article misuse ('the internal sports events,' 'the people gets chance'), subject-verb agreement slips ('the people gets'), and incorrect prepositions ('in their perspective' instead of 'from their perspective'). Punctuation and tense control are mostly functional, but errors persist. While these errors do not completely obscure the message, they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from reaching a higher band. The grammar is characteristic of Band 5.5, balancing a mix of structures with persistent inaccuracies.

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