Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-06

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, elementary and secondary schools are often closed for two months during summer seasons. The primary benefit of having long holidays is that it helps them to make strong family-ties and short-term holidays allow childern to make continuity with studies.

One of the main benefit of long-term holidays is that this helps school goers to make strong social bounds. This means that when school learners have holidays for 2 months or more, they get enough time for leisuring activities such as travelling, games or learning any skills with family members and friends. As a result, this would not only make their bounding strong, but also assist them to learn social ettiquates. Moreover, strong family relations lead to inner happiness that futher helps physological development. For instance, in India childern have strong family relationships due to the involvement in social activities.

On the other hand, short-time holidays help childern to make contiunity with studies. That is to say, when childern return from short holidays they remember all the circulum they did before holidays. This would provides a sense of sincerity towards studies and goals. Therefore, they do not feel distracted as they

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, as it is only 193 words long. This significantly impacts the development of ideas, leaving the second body paragraph incomplete and the conclusion entirely missing. While the essay addresses both parts of the prompt—the value of long holidays and the arguments for shorter ones—the ideas are under-developed. The lack of a conclusion and the abrupt ending mean the response does not fully address all parts of the task as required for higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay uses basic cohesive devices such as 'One of the main benefit', 'Moreover', and 'On the other hand' to signal transitions. However, the progression of ideas is interrupted by the incomplete nature of the final paragraph. Paragraphing is present, but the lack of a concluding summary makes the overall structure feel unfinished. Referencing is generally clear, but the mechanical use of transition words limits the flow of the argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. There are several spelling errors, such as 'childern' (children), 'ettiquates' (etiquette), 'futher' (further), 'physological' (psychological), and 'circulum' (curriculum). Additionally, word choice is sometimes imprecise, such as 'leisuring activities' instead of 'leisure activities' and 'social bounds' instead of 'social bonds'. These errors are noticeable and occasionally impede the reader's experience.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('One of the main benefit' should be 'benefits') and incorrect verb forms ('This would provides' should be 'This provides'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the incomplete final sentence demonstrates a lack of control over complex sentence construction. The errors are frequent enough to cause some difficulty for the reader.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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