Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-07-27

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 6.5)

Summer holidays are the holidays children from schools look forward to for the whole year around and are most excited for. A lot of countries allow two or more months of summer holidays for children in primary and secondary school. There are both advantages to long school holidays, and arguments made by people for shorter school holidays as well. This essay will discuss both topics with relevant reasons and examples in the following paragraph.

Foremost value of long school holidays would be the opportunity for children to pursue different kinds of habits they want to explore regarding their future interests and jobs, which is extremely difficult to do while studying all those complicated subjects in the school. This helps in making children what they actually want and how they should map out their future goals and tasks to achieve their desired level of success. For example, the student can enjoy working with the animals more than studying human biology and can change mind to read animal related stuff for higher studies compared to humans.

Everything has its supporters and opposers. Here as well, the arguments were made by people to shorten the long holidays from school as this can lead students astray from their original path and can distract them. The concentration they put while studying before gets interrupted after a long holiday and so they do not perform in the best way as the could in the past before holidays. This in turn, puts the future of the student in quite jeopardy and can be detrimental for the higher education of the student as the grades have been affected by long holidays.

In conclusion, there are a lot of pros and cons of long holidays. However, the arguments should be taken into an account too and the limit of holidays should be reduced by half to one month in total compared to two or more months for the brighter future of children.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the value of long holidays and the arguments for shorter ones. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. The example regarding 'working with animals' is a bit simplistic and lacks depth. While the position is clear, the explanation of the 'detrimental' effects of long holidays on grades is a generalisation that could be better supported with more specific reasoning. To reach a higher band, you should aim to expand on your points with more detailed explanations or concrete examples that illustrate the impact on students' academic or personal development.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. There is a basic introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Foremost', 'For example', and 'In conclusion', which help the flow of the text. However, some transitions feel a bit mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'Everything has its supporters and opposers. Here as well, the arguments were made...'. The progression of ideas is generally clear, but the logical links between sentences could be smoother to improve the overall coherence of the argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'detrimental', 'jeopardy', and 'pursue'. However, there are some instances of imprecise word choice and awkward phrasing, such as 'map out their future goals and tasks' or 'read animal related stuff'. Some collocations are also slightly unnatural, such as 'the arguments were made by people'. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, it lacks the precision and sophistication required for higher band scores. Focusing on more academic collocations will help improve this area.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'the student can enjoy working with the animals more than studying human biology and can change mind' (missing article/possessive) and 'the arguments should be taken into an account' (incorrect article usage). Additionally, some sentences are slightly clunky, such as 'the concentration they put while studying before gets interrupted'. While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Increasing the variety of complex structures while ensuring accuracy is key to improvement.

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