Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-13

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 6.0)

In various countries, school remain closed for 2 months or more for summer vacation. This has raised a question of benefits of long holidays and the potential Advantages of shorter one. I will discuss both views in detail.

On the one hand, there are numerous convincing reasons behind long holidays like students can spend the extreme time of summer at home. In some countries, the summer could be brutal so in the peak summer months particularly June and July students stay at their homes. In addition, this creates a sense of self confidence and creativeness. Because in longer holidays pupils have plenty of time to play and have fun and along with the fun they do homework that are assigned to them. Student feels the importance of teachers and he starts doing innovative things on their own.

On the other hand, there are plenty of advantages of shorter holidays, specifically in those areas where summer is not harsh enough. Young students forget the routine of school and they started investing their time on other activities that are useless because they thought that, it's their freedom and they will not get back to school ever again. Shorter holidays make them realize that they have to do fun for a given time and they will go back to their disciplend routine soon. Moreover, it creates the sense of responsibility and time management.

To put it in a nutshell, Summer holidays should be according to the weather and age group so the students get relaxed and do productive work.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions by discussing why long holidays may help students and why shorter breaks may be beneficial, then offer a concluding view that holidays should reflect weather and age. The examples of extreme summer heat and students having time to play give the first argument some relevant support. However, several points remain general or unclear: the claim that pupils develop “self confidence and creativeness” is not explained, and the argument that students forget school routines or spend time on “useless” activities needs a clearer example or reasoning. Your final position is also brief and does not fully weigh the two benefits. Develop each main idea with a specific explanation and make the comparison between the two holiday lengths clearer.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, separate paragraphs signposted by “On the one hand” and “On the other hand,” and a conclusion. This makes the two sides easy to identify, and linking expressions such as “In addition” and “Moreover” help connect supporting points. The progression within paragraphs is less consistent, however. In the first body paragraph, the move from hot weather to confidence, creativity, homework, and appreciation of teachers feels abrupt; the relationship between these ideas needs to be made explicit. Some references, such as “this” and “they,” are also not always precise. To strengthen the flow, group related points and use clearer cause-and-effect links rather than adding ideas in a list.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “summer vacation,” “peak summer months,” “routine,” “responsibility,” and “time management.” There are also attempts at less common expressions, such as “sense of self confidence” and “innovative things,” but some choices are inaccurate or unnatural and occasionally make the meaning less clear. For example, “spend the extreme time of summer” does not express the intended idea naturally, while “shorter one” is an imprecise reference to holidays. Spelling and word-form control also need attention in “disciplend” and “creativeness.” Build a more precise range of collocations for discussing education and leisure, and check that each word fits its context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a conditional idea in “where summer is not harsh enough” and a reason introduced by “Because.” However, control is uneven, and errors in agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence construction sometimes make the reader pause. Examples include “school remain closed,” “students stay at their homes,” and “they started investing,” where the verb forms or agreement do not fit the surrounding sentence. The sentence beginning “Because in longer holidays…” is a fragment, and “homework that are assigned” has a subject–verb agreement problem. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and main verb, and review agreement and tense consistency while retaining your attempts at complex structures.

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.