Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-14

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 many countries, primary and secondary schools close in summer for upto two or more months due to the fact that in most of the cases countries and areas have high temperatures in June and July month and also most students can't tolerate going to schools in these hot weathers.

First and foremost, the most important point to support larger holidays is the fact that most schools and colleges do not offer two offs a week because they have already decided to give the students two months of holidays at once.

Additionally, larger holidays offers great time to spent with families and friends. You have much time to go for a long drive and visit the archelogical and beutiful sites of your hometown which you can not visit in one day off.

Furthermore, an important point is that longer holidays offers more time for your mind to relax as compared to one off per week because our mind can not fully relax in one day after a hectic week of tests and papers.

The most valuable thing for long school holiday is that you can also control your routine, change any of your bad habit which you have because two months are more than enough. It is q great time to spend and prepare for future tests as well.

Despite all the benefits i want to add that shorter holidays are great to be incorporated with your school and college. If you do not go to school for two months you lose connection with school and also you become lazy because in longer holidays your time passes too slowly and you will become lazy.

In conclusion, longer holidays are great but also the holidays should be adjusted in a manner taht students don't lose their coherance with college.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: you explain the value of longer breaks through family visits, rest, changing habits and preparation for tests, then mention that shorter breaks may help students maintain their connection with school and avoid becoming lazy. However, the discussion is uneven. The case for long holidays receives several points, while the arguments for shorter holidays are confined to a brief paragraph and are not developed with a clear example or explanation of how shorter breaks would help learning. Some claims, such as schools giving two months off because they do not offer two days off each week, are unclear or not convincingly linked to the question. Develop both sides more evenly and make your overall position more precise. (Eight words copied from the task prompt were not counted.)

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an opening, a sequence of supporting points, a contrast introduced by “Despite all the benefits,” and a conclusion. Linking expressions such as “Additionally” and “Furthermore” help signal the list of benefits. However, the progression is somewhat mechanical: several paragraphs add another point without showing how it relates to the previous one, and the shorter-holiday argument arrives late and remains brief. Some connections are unclear, particularly the explanation about weekly days off and two months of holidays. The conclusion repeats the general contrast but does not clearly resolve it. Group related ideas into fuller paragraphs and use explicit links to explain cause, contrast and consequence.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including phrases such as “hectic week,” “control your routine” and “lose connection with school.” There are also attempts to express more specific ideas, such as visiting local sites and preparing for future tests. However, word choice and collocation are often inaccurate or repetitive: “larger holidays” is used where “longer holidays” is more natural, and “two offs a week” and “one day off” are imprecise in this context. Spelling errors such as “archelogical,” “beutiful” and “coherance” are noticeable, while repeated use of “great” limits precision. Build a wider set of accurate phrases for discussing rest, learning and school schedules, and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including clauses introduced by “because” and “as compared to,” so there is some variety. However, complex sentences are often not controlled accurately, and errors recur in agreement, articles, verb forms and sentence construction. For example, “larger holidays offers” should have a plural verb, while “more time to spent” needs an infinitive form. The opening sentence is overloaded, making its relationships between ideas difficult to follow, and the final sentence contains a faulty construction around how holidays should be adjusted. These errors sometimes make the reader pause to interpret the meaning. Practise building shorter, accurate sentences first, then combine ideas using controlled subordinate clauses.

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