Ambition is an important characteristic of people in today’s society. How important you think it is for people who want to succeed in life? Is it a positive or negative characteristic for success?
Sample Response
Nowadays, ambition is regarded as a valuable personal quality in modern society. For ordinary people who want to achievewant get real success throughout their livesduring their life, I think ambition is very important. In my view, its advantages outweigh the disadvantages, although people without self‑control may suffer significantly fromsuffer a lot from too much ambition. Firstly, ambition gives people motivation to improve themselves. Most people are lazy and prefer comfortable lives. Ambitious people are not satisfied with an ordinary lifewith ordinary life. They want better achievements, so they work harder and keep learning new skills. This helps them make progress and become more competitive in both study and work. Besides, ambition helps people keep working hard after failures. Success always comes with difficulties and mistakes. People without ambition will give up easily when they encountermeet problems. However, ambitious people have clear goals. They can face failures bravely and continue to try again. Even if they experience several bad results, they will not give up their targets, which greatly increases their chances of success in the long run. On the other hand, excessive ambition causes pressure and wrong choices. If people are too ambitious, they only focus on fast success. They may care too much about results and feel stressed and anxious every day. Some people even break rules or hurt others to achieve their goals. Finally, they may lose friends and a good reputationgood reputation, which hindersstops their long‑term success. When people only think about winning, they ignore other important things in their daily liveslife. In conclusion, ambition plays a key part for people chasing success. It is a positive characteristic in general. People should control their desire properly, or it will bring negative consequencesbad result to their future life.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The essay presents a well-structured and convincing response that clearly addresses both parts of the prompt with a consistent position. Main arguments are logically developed and organized into balanced body paragraphs with good transitions. To elevate the writing further, focus on refining subtle grammatical errors such as missing infinitives or article usage and incorporating more sophisticated vocabulary to express complex ideas precisely.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response directly answers both questions in the prompt, offering a clear stance on the importance and overall positive nature of ambition.
Provide more specific real-world examples or deeper analytical details to make the core arguments even more persuasive.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay is logically organized into distinct paragraphs with clear central themes and smooth cohesive linking throughout.
Incorporate a wider variety of sophisticated transitional phrases to create an even more seamless flow between opposing arguments.
Lexical Resource
A good range of topic-specific vocabulary is used effectively to explain concepts related to ambition and success.
Aim to use more advanced collocations and precise lexical choices while avoiding repetitive words like 'success' and 'achieve'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex sentence structures is used with good general control, making the meaning clear throughout.
Proofread carefully to eliminate minor grammatical slips, such as omitted verb particles and plural noun agreement errors.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS Writing Task 2
Ambition is an important characteristic of people in today’s society. How important you think it is for people who want to succeed in life? Is it a positive or negative characteristic for success?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.