Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-09

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)

today's world, education is a must to every child and individual across every country. The duration of summer holidays became a major thing in terms of priority in some countries like in middle eastern location. Where as cold countries which experience long winters have concentrated less on summer holidays giving only few weeks for summer vacations.

On the other side, a regular family would like to spend most of the time in summer holidays by travelling to their homeland, meeting their relatives and seek long durations for summer, so that children can spend valuable time with cousins and relatives making valuable memories. On the other hand, some parents who work 365 days would find it difficult to take care of children during summer holidays as they have to work and prefer shorter period of holidays.

This has become a major problem and is affecting children in a bad way. Childhood is to cherish some good valuable memories along with studies. Longer summer breaks allow the children to make time to visit family relatives and this early relationship helps to maintain a stronger bond for the rest of the life. Once they are out of school, they have to work and make a living for themselves where they won't find time for their loved ones.

Coming to shorter school holidays, they help the children from falling back in studies (or) having interest. With longer duration of holidays children take a lot of time to get back their concentration after the school starts. It has both positive and negative side to it. Shorter school holidays help the student to maintain concentration, performance but at the same time they won't form special bonds which are really important.

From my perspective, maintaining strong relationship bonds is more important than just education which requires a longer duration of summer holidays.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the value of long holidays and the arguments for shorter ones. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The argument for long holidays focuses heavily on family bonding, which is relevant, but the discussion on shorter holidays is a bit repetitive and lacks depth regarding academic or economic benefits. The position is clear, but the ideas could be more thoroughly extended with specific examples or more nuanced reasoning to reach a higher band. The introduction is a bit vague, and the conclusion is brief.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the argument. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent use of 'On the other hand' and 'On the other side'. Some transitions between sentences feel abrupt, and the logical flow within paragraphs could be improved by using a wider variety of linking words. Referencing is generally clear, but the overall progression of ideas lacks the sophistication required for a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision expected at higher levels. Phrases like 'major thing' and 'bad way' are overly simplistic and informal. While the student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary, such as 'concentration' and 'academic performance', the overall lexical choice is limited. There is a reliance on basic vocabulary, and some collocations are slightly unnatural, such as 'middle eastern location' instead of 'Middle Eastern countries'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles (e.g., 'in middle eastern location'), subject-verb agreement, and punctuation. For instance, 'Where as cold countries...' is a sentence fragment. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are persistent throughout the text. To improve, the student should focus on sentence boundary control and ensuring that complex structures are used with greater accuracy.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.