Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-12

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 a lot of nation,pupils in primary and secondary schools are having a long holiday in summer.it can give student a lot of free time but shorter school holiday keep the pupils relaxed and in the same time they never forget what they did in school.

In the first place,long holidays can help student relaxing, releve stress and do more activities such as sports or music.For example in my home country as a pupils i was getting three months of holiday in the summer i was enjoying my freetime by going to the beachs to camp and also developping myself by learning a new language.

in the other hand, shorter holidays can do the work of relaxing and at the same time student can never forget what they studied during the semester.In my expirience when i was in tuinisia i was going back to scholl after a long holday with a blank mind almost forgetting evry thing from last year.For example, here in Germany student only get a one month holidays between each semester and isee that stusent reminded evrything they studied.

In conclusion, we can see that long holdays give us more free time to enjoy ourselves but i reflects negativly on our studiying memory,but the schorter ones can keep us relaxed and help us keeping our memories .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: the first body paragraph explains that long holidays allow pupils to relax, reduce stress and pursue activities, while the second argues that shorter breaks help students retain what they learned. Your personal examples from Tunisia and Germany make the discussion relevant. However, the ideas are brief and unevenly developed; for instance, the claim that German students remember more is asserted rather than explained or supported with a specific detail. The opening also gives a position, but the comparison could be clearer and more fully reasoned. The response is 30 words below the required minimum, which limits the space available to develop both sides. Add explanation and a further relevant example for each argument.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, one paragraph for each side of the discussion, and a conclusion. This makes the main progression easy to follow, and phrases such as “In the first place” and “For example” help signal the purpose of ideas. However, some links are mechanical or inaccurate: “in the other hand” does not correctly introduce a contrast, and the opening and conclusion combine several points without clearly showing how they relate. References such as “it” in the conclusion are also not fully clear. Use accurate contrast markers such as “On the other hand,” and connect each example explicitly to the point it supports. Clearer sentence boundaries would also improve the flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “free time,” “relaxing,” “stress,” “activities,” and “semester.” The examples also show an attempt to use more specific language, such as “learning a new language.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors make parts less clear, including “beachs,” “developping,” “holday,” and “studiying memory.” Some expressions are not natural in this context, such as “a blank mind” and “keep us relaxed.” Aim to learn accurate collocations for school and learning, and check spelling carefully. More precise vocabulary would help distinguish the benefits of rest from the educational effects of shorter breaks.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and longer sentences with reasons and examples, so the response is not limited to isolated basic clauses. However, the range is narrow, and attempts to combine ideas often contain errors in sentence structure, verb forms, agreement, articles and punctuation. For example, “pupils … are having a long holiday” is an awkwardly formed general statement, while “shorter school holiday keep the pupils relaxed” has a subject–verb agreement problem. Several sentences also run together, particularly in the introduction and conclusion, making relationships between clauses harder to follow. Practise forming accurate complex sentences with “because,” “while” and “which,” and use full stops and commas to separate complete ideas.

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