Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-10

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 5.0)

In large number of countries, primary and secondary schools close for two or more in the summer holidays. This essay will consider, in turn, is there any value in long school breaks and what are the benefits of shorter school holidays, both of which merit closer examination.

With respect to the first question, students and the children can get a to see a sight-seeing, explore the world and experience quite pleasant memories in their youth, largely because it would become more harder for if they do it in later years due to being students will have less time to do new activities. When they get older they might prioritize more on their academic problems. This is well demonstrated by teenagers usually often prefers studying instead of going out and having time-off, which highlights missing out on adventurous experience.

Turning to the second question, students can get higher intelligence if they have less breaks like they would have more days learning in school other than doing something different activity, a conclusion supported by people intellect grows by redoing the same thing over and over again makes them better than rest of their competitors who have same goal. This is further reinforced by university students who have more time learning their subjects to pass or get higher grades.

In short, students may gets to experience best memorable events of their life, while shortening breaks can increase efficiency of studying together pointing a fuller picture of an issue that resists a simple, one-sided response.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long holidays and the arguments for shorter ones. However, the development of ideas is limited. For instance, the argument regarding 'higher intelligence' through shorter breaks is asserted but lacks logical depth or concrete evidence. The explanation of why students need long breaks is somewhat repetitive and relies on vague generalizations. To reach a higher band, you should provide more specific examples or logical reasoning to support your claims, ensuring that each point is fully explored rather than just stated.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You use some cohesive devices like 'With respect to the first question' and 'Turning to the second question' to signal transitions. However, the flow within paragraphs is sometimes hindered by awkward phrasing and mechanical links. For example, the sentence 'a conclusion supported by people intellect grows by redoing the same thing' is grammatically disjointed, making the logical connection between the premise and the conclusion difficult to follow. Improving the variety and accuracy of your linking words would enhance the overall flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and sophistication. There are several instances of awkward collocations and word choice errors, such as 'more harder' (should be 'harder'), 'get a to see a sight-seeing' (which is ungrammatical), and 'people intellect grows'. These errors occasionally impede the clarity of your message. To improve, focus on learning common collocations and using more precise academic vocabulary. Avoid repeating basic words and try to incorporate more varied, topic-specific terminology to demonstrate a wider range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that affect readability. Issues include subject-verb agreement ('students may gets'), incorrect comparative structures ('more harder'), and missing articles or prepositions. Some sentences are quite convoluted, such as 'a conclusion supported by people intellect grows by redoing the same thing over and over again makes them better than rest of their competitors'. These errors are frequent enough to cause some difficulty for the reader. Focusing on basic sentence construction and proofreading for subject-verb agreement would significantly improve your score.

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

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