Band 7.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-07-26

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 7.5)

Many countries have a common practice of giving a long break, for two months or over, during the summer. Longer breaks have been considered indispensable to students for keeping their body and mind in check as well as finding their areas of interest. Notwithstanding that, arguments in favour of shorter school holidays are also increasing, highlighting that it is more beneficial to students to retain their learning ability.

Such long school breaks are important to students to have physical and mental relaxations. In many countries around the world, the academic sessions are tough to handle and usually comprises of a lot of homework, deadlines, projects and classes from early in the morning to late evening. This causes mental fatigue and physical distress to students making the need for longer breaks essential. It is also argued that such long school holidays provide students with ample time to do what interests them or to learn new interesting skills which will aide them later on in life. For example, learning computing, photo editing or film making skills can be helpful addition to students personal portfolio even aiding them with their university's applications in the future. Therefore, considering the pursuit of health and own's interests, longer breaks are of immense value.

Despite that, arguments favouring shorter school holidays also exists, citing the tendency of breaking of study habits and retention ability during the longer holidays. Parents argue that they have observed a noticeable pattern during their children's first few weeks after long breaks, where children loses focus frequently and finds difficulty to comprehend their lessons. Although, eventually they are able to catch up their learning pace, having a bit more frequent but shorter holidays is considered to be better by many. Since the waiting time for long breaks is huge, short holidays can be made frequent, providing students with ample time for relaxing their body and mind. Meanwhile, it is also believed that with shorter school holidays in place, schools do not need to increase their pace to cover all the contents making it easy for students to follow their courses. That is why, shorter school holidays are now being favoured over long breaks.

To sum up, while longer school holidays provide enough time for students to travel, or pursue newer skills and keep their mind away from fatigue, arguments surrounding making breaks shorter exists to maintain students habit of studying and keep their ability to remember lessons intact.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 8.0

You have addressed both parts of the prompt clearly and maintained a consistent position throughout the essay. The ideas regarding the value of long holidays (mental health, skill acquisition) and the arguments for shorter holidays (retention of learning, study habits) are well-developed and supported with relevant examples. The response is balanced and covers all requirements of the task effectively. To reach a higher band, ensure that your introduction provides a slightly more nuanced roadmap of the arguments to be discussed, and consider adding a more definitive concluding thought that synthesizes the two perspectives rather than just summarizing them.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear progression of ideas. Each paragraph has a central theme, and you use cohesive devices such as 'Notwithstanding that,' 'Therefore,' and 'Meanwhile' to link your points. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive. For instance, the transition between the second and third paragraphs could be smoother to better highlight the contrast between the two viewpoints. Paragraphing is used appropriately, and the overall structure is easy to follow, which is a key strength of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 7.0

You demonstrate a good range of vocabulary, using terms like 'indispensable,' 'mental fatigue,' and 'retention ability' appropriately. There are some minor collocation issues, such as 'comprises of' (should be 'comprises' or 'is composed of') and 'catch up their learning pace' (should be 'catch up with'). While you attempt to use less common vocabulary, these occasional inaccuracies prevent the score from reaching the highest band. Focusing on precise collocations and avoiding slight word-choice errors will help elevate your lexical score significantly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures effectively. There are several grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('arguments... exists' should be 'exist', 'children loses' should be 'children lose') and minor punctuation slips. While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. To improve, pay closer attention to pluralization and subject-verb agreement. Your use of complex sentences is generally successful, but ensuring these are error-free will be the next step in your development.

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