Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-01

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 6.5)

It is argued that The Football World Cup and The Olympics bring countries together, while, the other side of the stratosphere believes it promotes competition and not friendship. These occasions encourage socialisation for both athletes and the fans while also promoting tourism; meanwhile, the opportunity to host with neighbouring countries allows them to put their differences aside for a while. Top performances and elite athletes always means healthy competition for those involved.

People and athletes around the world look up to these events because they happen every two or four years. For some it is an opportunity to travel; visit new places, meet new people, mingle in new cultures and increase their exposure to this wonderful world. It encourages tourism and allows people of different backgrounds to socialise. For instance, The 2022 football worldcup put Qatar on the world map. Previously, people were not aware what/where Qatar was. It boosted their tourism industry and it is a regular country on people's bucket list now. For atheletes they have an oppurtunity to learn from their very best competitors and legends of the sport who have retired.

The FIFA worldcup has rules in place to require certain number of stadiums for a country to host one ; most countries fail to fulfill this requirement. This means there has to be multiple hosts. To cite an example, the 2026 FIFA worlcup had 3 hosts ; USA, Canada and Mexico. All of them had political differences between them, but for the World Cup they all united, eased policies and welcomed people from all over the world to participate and attend the tournament.

Major events like these promote competition between countries. Competition does not have to be toxic, it can be healthy that allows all competitors to push each other to be better. For example, the 2024 summer olympics in Paris saw the United States win the most number of medals while Australia finished 2nd with just 2 less. Both the countries hit their all time high tally. The entire tournament was filled with excitement and narrow margins between the two and we all witnessed a kind of competition that allowed both countries to be the best version of themselves.

I believe major events like these are an incredible opppurtunity to bring the world together, promote brotherhood and co-operation between countries and continents. Healthy compeitition is just a part of that equation ; it holds no one back.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both views on international sports events and providing a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. It meets the requirements of the lower band by covering the main themes of socialisation, tourism, political cooperation, and healthy competition. However, some ideas remain under-developed, keeping the score from reaching a higher level. For instance, the point about tourism and Qatar is introduced well with a concrete example, but the explanation regarding how it builds friendship between nations could be extended further. Similarly, the discussion around the 2026 FIFA World Cup hosts having political differences touches on international relations, but this idea is left somewhat surface-level rather than being fully explored to demonstrate how sport genuinely bridges geopolitical divides.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression of ideas from general social and tourism benefits to political cooperation and finally healthy competition. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points, such as the dedicated paragraph for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the separate discussion on Paris 2024. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or features faulty referencing. Phrases like 'while, the other side of the stratosphere believes' introduce an awkward transition and unnatural phrasing. Furthermore, referencing between sentences can occasionally feel abrupt, lacking smoother cohesive links to guide the reader seamlessly between the contrasting views of friendship versus competition.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to use less common items and specific terminology related to global events and sports, such as 'exposure', 'geopolitical', and 'elite athletes'. There are, however, noticeable spelling and word choice errors that prevent a higher rating, including 'oppurtunity', 'atheletes', 'worlcup', and 'compeitition'. Some expressions are also slightly unnatural or colloquial, such as 'the other side of the stratosphere believes' and 'put Qatar on the world map'. While these inaccuracies do not seriously impede communication, they reflect a limited precision in lexical control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional ideas effectively throughout the essay. There are instances of good grammatical control, such as in the discussion of the 2024 Olympics where the structure supports the argument well. Nevertheless, a number of grammatical errors and punctuation slips persist. These include issues with subject-verb agreement and article usage, such as 'require certain number of stadiums' missing a determiner, '3 hosts ; USA' with incorrect spacing around punctuation, and minor prepositional inconsistencies. These errors rarely impede communication, placing the grammatical performance firmly within this band.

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