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)

There is no denying the fact that school close for long time on summer holiday above two months. This essay will discuss about benefits of long holidays and the merits of shorter holidays.

To begin, there is many aspects to consider about the long-term holidays. Firstly, the longest holidays give pupils much time to play and relax enough. In other words, children will have long time to go outside and make new friendship and also enhance communication skills with talking with other children. In addition, young students spent much time in formal study, and this does not give them time to discover the environment around, for example children they need to know more information about world, and they can discover this new information by having more free time.

In item of positive side of small holidays, pupils will not forget lessons they take on school on short holiday. It also possible to say that children if stay for away from school for ling time may they forget most lessons they take on classrooms. Moreover, the weekends holiday can be enough time for students to rest and relax and at the same time they still memories all information they got on school. For instance, children on weekend can sleep well and wake up at late time they also can spent enough time with their families and also can do their homeworks.

In conclusion, there are many pointes to highlight regarding the merits of long holidays, and it is also true that short holidays can be enough time and the best for students

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both questions: it identifies relaxation, play, social interaction and exploration as benefits of long holidays, and argues that shorter breaks help pupils retain what they have learned. These are relevant points, but they are not developed evenly or clearly enough. For example, the claim that free time helps children “discover the environment around” is broad and would benefit from a specific explanation or example. The case for shorter holidays is clearer, particularly the concern that pupils may forget lessons, but the discussion of weekends and family time does not fully explain why shorter school holidays are preferable. The conclusion repeats both sides without giving a clear overall judgement. Develop each argument with a concrete example and make your position explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two sides, and a conclusion. Signposting such as “To begin,” “Firstly,” “In addition,” and “In conclusion” helps readers follow the broad organisation. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes mechanical, and connections between ideas are not always clear. For instance, the sentence about children needing to know more about the world follows the point about formal study, but the relationship between these ideas needs clearer explanation. The phrase “In item of positive side” also makes the transition into the second argument difficult to follow. Use simpler, accurate transitions and organise each paragraph around one main claim, followed by explanation and an example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas, including “relax,” “communication skills,” “formal study,” and “forget lessons.” There are also attempts to use topic-related expressions such as “long-term holidays.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations sound unnatural, sometimes making meaning less clear. Examples include “make new friendship,” “In item of positive side,” and “memories all information.” Spelling and word-form errors such as “ling” and “pointes” also reduce accuracy. Build a bank of natural phrases for discussing education and holidays, and check whether nouns, verbs and collocations fit together. More precise wording would make the arguments easier to understand and more convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts both simple and more complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “and,” “for example,” and “if.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in agreement, verb forms, articles and sentence construction are frequent enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. For example, “school close” lacks subject–verb agreement, while “there is many aspects” has an agreement error. The conditional sentence beginning “children if stay for away from school” is particularly difficult to interpret because its structure is faulty. There are also problems with tense and verb forms, as in “students spent much time” and “can spent.” Practise building accurate basic sentences first, then add subordinate clauses while checking agreement and verb forms.

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