Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-02

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 often argued that international sporting competition like the Olympics and the Football World Event are a better way to strong the relations of the countries around the globe, while others believe that these tournaments create rivalry, not strengthen the relationships between nations. In my opinion, worldwide sporting events bringing the countries together and establish better relations around the globe.

On the one hand, cross-border sporting events brings the nation together. Players from different countries take participate in the globally event where they experience the culture of other countries. Moreover, sporting events build the unity among the sportsmen and the citizens of other countries. For instance, spectators watch the tournament in the stadium with a people from all around the world, they shared conversations and support their team. This brings the unity among the individuals. Furthermore, arranging a competition in the other country reduce

political tensions and strong the friendships of two nations.

On the other hand, the events also proved the rivalries among the nations. Sportsmen and people develop negative attitude towards the rival countries. For example, viewers or players may get extremely emotional about their national teams and may develop detrimental attitude for the competitor countries. In addition to it, on few occassions, owing to cross-border tensions, sportsmen didn't show the sportsmanship on the ground and creats the sense of hate among the other spectators.

In my opinion, worldwide games competition is the better way to lower the political problems and the discrimination among the residents of different nations.

To conclude, although sporting events creats a sense of rival, the significance of globally sporting events cannot be ignored.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both views and state a consistent opinion that international sporting events can improve relations. The first body paragraph gives relevant reasons, including cultural exchange and spectators meeting, while the second explains how strong national emotions can create hostility. These points keep the response focused on the question. However, some ideas are asserted rather than fully explained: the claim that hosting an event reduces political tensions, for example, would benefit from a specific example or a clearer explanation of how this happens. Your conclusion restates your position but does not bring the two sides together in much detail. Develop the supporting examples and explain the limits of your view more fully to strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, your opinion, and a conclusion. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “To conclude” helps readers follow the discussion. Within paragraphs, however, some connections are mechanical or unclear. In the example about spectators, the shift from watching together to “This brings the unity” is not smoothly expressed, and the sentence about hosting events and reducing tensions is separated by an awkward line break. The opinion paragraph also repeats the main position without developing the progression of the argument. Use clearer links between each reason and its consequence, and integrate your opinion into the discussion as well as the conclusion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “political tensions,” “rival countries,” “sportsmanship,” and “detrimental attitude.” These choices show an effort to express more than basic ideas. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, sometimes making the meaning less precise: “strong the relations,” “take participate,” “globally event,” and “proved the rivalries” do not fit their intended meanings. There are also spelling and word-form slips, such as “occassions” and “creats.” Aim for accurate, natural combinations rather than choosing more formal-sounding words; checking collocations and spelling during revision would make your vocabulary more effective and easier to understand.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “while,” “where,” and “although,” and the overall meaning is generally understandable. Some grammatical errors remain across the response, particularly with subject–verb agreement and verb forms: “events brings,” “arranging … reduce,” and “events creats” should use forms that agree with their subjects. There are also problems with sentence construction and articles, as in “with a people,” and the long spectator example joins two independent ideas with a comma. These errors do not usually prevent the reader from following your argument, but they reduce accuracy. Practise checking agreement, verb forms, and sentence boundaries, while continuing to use varied sentence structures.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.