Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-06

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 5.5)

In this passage, we're going to discuss about the long term holdidays in the primary and secondary schools during the summer with its advantages and disadvantages.

To begin with, let's discuss the advantages first. As we know summer could be a very harsh time of the year, with its unbearable heat to the discomfort of sweating, summer can easily be claimed as the most difficult time period of the year. It could be very harsh time period in some countries especially in the middle east where people can't work or study properly without air conditioning or a proper facility for cooling. So during the summer, many educational institutes are tend to close their activities during the meantime to facilitate their students. The universities, colleges and schools remains closed so the students can rest at home and don't get dehydrated due to the hotness and sweating in the summer. So they grant the students long term summer holidays upto 2 to 3 months so that they can rest or enjoying travelling during that time.

However if we talk about the cons of these long term holdings, students tend to lose their concentration in the studies after a long break. They find it hard to go back to their school life, take a grip of their studies and cooperate with the other students and teachers. Dur to staying at home for so long, they become lazy and even the smallest tasks become hectic for them which can make them lose their interest quite easily. Going back to daily life after such a long break can be very difficult to many students. So they tend to lose their interests instead.

To conclude this, i think it is important for the students to rest during the summer to function properly but a long time break can definitely makes it very to return back to studying and concentrating during the classes, making the children lazy.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions by explaining why long summer breaks may help students cope with extreme heat and rest, then presenting the difficulty of returning to study as an argument for shorter holidays. The reference to hot conditions in the Middle East is relevant, and your conclusion gives a clear preference for allowing rest while recognising the drawbacks of a long break. However, the response focuses mainly on the disadvantages of long holidays rather than developing specific arguments in favour of shorter ones. The benefits of long holidays are also largely limited to avoiding heat and travelling; further explanation or a concrete example would make the ideas more convincing. Make the comparison between the two types of holiday explicit and support each main point more fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on the value of long holidays, a paragraph on drawbacks, and a conclusion. Transitions such as “To begin with,” “However,” and “To conclude” help signal the direction of the discussion. Within paragraphs, ideas generally follow a sensible order, especially the link between heat and the need for rest. However, the progression is sometimes repetitive: the second body paragraph repeats that students struggle to return to school and lose interest without clearly separating these effects. Some linking phrases, including “So,” recur mechanically, and the opening promises a discussion of advantages and disadvantages rather than directly framing the two questions. Use clearer topic sentences and connect each supporting point to the relevant question.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “air conditioning,” “dehydrated,” “concentration,” and “cooperate.” There are also attempts at more descriptive language, such as “unbearable heat” and “daily life.” However, several inaccurate or unnatural choices make the writing less precise: “long term holdings” is used for holidays, “hotness and sweating” is awkward, and “lose their interests” does not express the intended meaning naturally. Spelling errors such as “holdidays” and “Dur” are noticeable, while repeated use of “harsh,” “long,” and “students” limits variety. Choose accurate collocations and check spelling; for example, use “extended summer break” and “lose interest in their studies.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple and longer sentences, including a conditional structure in “It could be very harsh… where people can't work or study properly” and a concluding contrast between rest and returning to study. However, control is inconsistent, and errors occur in both basic and more complex structures. Examples include “schools remains closed” (subject–verb agreement), “institutes are tend to close” (verb form), and “a long time break can definitely makes” (modal verb pattern). Articles and sentence construction also need attention, as in “It could be very harsh time period.” These errors sometimes make the reader pause, although the main meaning is usually recoverable. Practise agreement, modal constructions, and accurate sentence boundaries, then proofread each sentence for a complete and correctly formed verb.

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