Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-23
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)
Some people trust that the worldwide sports are helpful to build close relationship with other countries whereas others argue that these sports events generate competition among nations, not friendship relations. This essay will discuss both views before my own opinion.
On the one hand, every sports foster the players regarding the teamwork, leadership, respect and dignity of each other. Every sports-person starts an event with a handshake and a small conversation to build a positive relation among both the teams. However, as a player they are competing with each other on the ground to win an award for their team, but at the backstage, they all are human first. So, the team members try to engage with each other and know about their culture and other sports interest.
On the other side, The Olympics games are the dream of every sports person. Every individual works hard to succeed them and act as competitors in the playground. Even though they are good friends and have sportsman spirit with them all the time. Like, even after the end of match every player from the defeated team congrates the leading team.
In my opinion, the international sports might seem like hard competition among team members, but it builds relationship between different cultures, communities and countries.
To conclude, the Olympics or the other international sports may create a tough competition among their players, but their good sportsman spirit always booster their positive relationships with each other out of the ground.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt (the view that sports bring countries together versus the view that they create competition) and provides the writer's own opinion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on sports fostering teamwork is rather generalized. Furthermore, the response suffers from a negative penalty due to length: it contains 246 words, narrowly missing the 250-word minimum requirement. This keeps the score at a Band 5.5, as the under-length nature impacts full task completion and development.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The essay is organized into five paragraphs, including a clear introduction and conclusion. There is an attempt at logical progression using cohesive devices such as "On the one hand" and "On the other side". However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen with phrases like "Like, even after the end of match" which disrupt the flow. Paragraphing is present and used sufficiently to separate the differing views, though the body paragraphs lack deep internal cohesion and transition smoothly between ideas, landing the response solidly at Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for the task, attempting some less common items such as "sportsman spirit" and "communities". However, there are notable word-choice and collocation errors, such as "worldwide sports" instead of "international sports", "succeed them" instead of "succeed in them", and "congrates" instead of "congratulates". Vocabulary is also repetitive, with words like "sports", "play", and "team" recurring frequently. These inaccuracies and limited lexical range point directly to a Band 5.5 descriptor level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional or concessive clauses ("Even though they are good friends..."). However, there are frequent grammatical errors in tense, article usage, and prepositions, including "every sports foster" (agreement error), "at the backstage", and "booster their positive relationships" (tense/verb form error). Punctuation and sentence structures occasionally cause slight strain for the reader, though they rarely impede overall communication entirely, justifying a Band 5.5 score.
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