Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

When talking about holidays summar vication is a time when most of schools are close for more then a month, some people believe that it is a time when some schools start some new curricular activites which help students to develop new skills or some students get a chance to spend their time with their family, grandparents and also get chance to relax from educational burden. Many people agrue that long holidays is not beneficial for students because the get distracted it increase the chances of forgetting the lessons and also a problem for working parents.

Long holidays is a method which provide students a chance to learn new activities and which they can not follow with their studies because of academic burden during school at that time they have a chance to identify their skill or interest's. Moreover it is also work as a therapy to reduce stress and provide family time. For example, my family is always waiting for me to get summar holidays so we can spend a month in my home town with my grand parents where I learn farming, swimming and other activities.

Main signifiacnt reason behind the argument of short holidays are now schools offer those opportunities to students for which they are waiting for long chances to learn activies such as dance, swimmin, karate classes in their schools which helpful for both students and schools to identify the students personal skills and also motivate students by giving small breaks for ten or twenty days which also not affect the learning.

In conclusion, In today's generation every parents are working and long holidays creat problems for them also but improving facilities will help in this idea by provide choice of holidays for whom they need.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: the first body paragraph explains benefits such as learning new activities, reducing stress and spending time with family, while the next gives reasons for shorter breaks, including school-based activities and parents’ work commitments. The personal example about visiting your grandparents makes one benefit more concrete. However, the arguments are only partly developed. The case for shorter holidays is especially unclear: you mention activities offered by schools, but do not explain fully how shorter breaks help students retain learning or support working families. Your conclusion introduces a choice of holiday arrangements without showing how this follows from the discussion. Develop each main reason with a clearer explanation or example, and state your overall view more directly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two sides, and a conclusion. This helps readers identify the main topics. Some progression is also signalled by phrases such as “Moreover” and “For example.” However, the opening sentence is overloaded with several ideas, and the shift from the benefits of long holidays to the arguments for shorter ones is not always clearly signposted. Within the shorter-holiday paragraph, school activities, students’ skills and small breaks are joined together without a clear sequence. The conclusion adds a new proposal rather than neatly summarising the discussion. Use one main point per paragraph, connect each explanation explicitly to that point, and make references such as “this idea” more precise.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You attempt vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “educational burden,” “identify their skill or interest,” “reduce stress,” and “working parents.” These phrases show an effort to express more than basic opinions. However, the range is limited and several spelling and word-choice errors make parts of the response difficult to read, for example “summar vication,” “curricular activites,” “agrue,” and “signifiacnt.” Some combinations are also unnatural, such as “long holidays is a method” and “small breaks for ten or twenty days.” Choose more precise, natural expressions and check spelling carefully. Reusing accurate topic vocabulary—such as “school break,” “retain what they have learned,” and “family responsibilities”—would make your arguments clearer and more fluent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentences, including clauses beginning with “because” and “which,” and you use examples to connect ideas. However, complex sentences are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some relationships difficult to follow. For instance, “Long holidays is a method which provide students” has problems with subject–verb agreement, while “the get distracted it increase the chances” joins clauses without a clear grammatical link. There are also recurring errors with articles, plurals and verb forms, as in “most of schools are close” and “every parents are working.” Practise building shorter, complete sentences first, then combine them with accurate conjunctions and relative clauses. Check agreement and sentence boundaries during revision.

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