Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-05

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries, primary and secondary schools close for two months or more in the summer holidays.

What is the value of long school holidays?

What are the arguments in favour of shorter school holidays?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Summer holidays are one of the enjoyable times a year particularly for students. They provides relaxtion for students by keeping away from academic responsibilities and stress. In addition, it helps students to spend quality times with their families and explore new things. However, holidays is important but longer time holidays can also have drawkbacks like difficulty to readjust to academic routine life, loss their motivation of study and difficulty to back their normal life. On the other hand, long school holidays helps students to enjoy their quality time to spend themselves and their families also they can utilize their time to learn new skill. Break from academic life can refresh their mind and stress free. But shorter holidays also beneficial in some extent like it can helps students to balance their academic life with holiday life, adjut to their normal routine life, memorize their lesson withouy boredom. For example, in my school days once i got longer holidays which eventually happy me but after backing school from long holidays was very painful. I was forgot many my lessons as i was very young which eventually leads depression and panicked me.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address both questions by describing benefits of extended breaks, such as family time, learning new skills and relief from academic stress, and by noting that shorter breaks may help students maintain routines and remember lessons. However, these points are mostly listed rather than explained, and the discussion of shorter holidays is especially brief. Your personal example about struggling to return to school is relevant, but it supports the disadvantages of long holidays more than the arguments in favour of shorter ones. The response also does not meet the required minimum of 250 words, which limits how fully you can develop and support your ideas. Explain the effects of each benefit and argument, and add a relevant example for both sides.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: you introduce the topic, use “On the other hand” to shift to shorter holidays, and give a personal example. These signals help readers recognise the main contrast. However, the overall progression is not consistently clear. The opening moves quickly from benefits to drawbacks, then the next section repeats benefits of long holidays before turning to shorter ones. Several ideas are joined in long sequences, making the relationships between them difficult to follow. Paragraphing would help separate the value of long holidays, the case for shorter holidays, and your example. Use linking phrases to show specific relationships, such as cause and result, rather than relying mainly on broad transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “academic responsibilities,” “motivation,” “routine,” and “memorize,” and the reader can generally identify your intended points. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, word-form, and spelling errors make parts of the response difficult to understand. Examples include “relaxtion,” “drawkbacks,” “quality times,” and “backing school.” Some phrases are also unnatural, such as “stress free” and “utilize their time to learn new skill.” Aim for accurate collocations and check spelling and plural forms. More precise expressions such as “recharge,” “return to school,” and “maintain academic progress” would help you explain the ideas clearly without repeating general terms like “time” and “life.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including a contrast introduced by “However” and a personal example beginning “For example.” This shows an effort to connect ideas in more than one way. However, the range remains limited, and errors in agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence construction occur frequently enough to affect clarity. For instance, “They provides” has a subject–verb agreement error, while “holidays is important” and “long school holidays helps” also mismatch subject and verb. In “I was forgot many my lessons,” the verb pattern and sentence structure are faulty. Practise building accurate sentences with plural subjects and past-tense verbs, and check each sentence for a clear subject and main verb before adding extra clauses.

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.