Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-12

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)

It is often argued that two month or more summer vacations are valuable or non beneficial for students of schools in large number of countries. long holidays helps to create strong bonding with their siblings, grandparents and engage to involve in physical activities.

On the one hand, in long holidays students spend more time with their family which help them to create strong relation with family members. Mostly students are busy in their school routine they do not visit their other family members like grandparents and cousins but in holidays they have chance to visit them. For instance, in Pakistan mostly child spend their summer holidays in their relatives where they spend time with cousins where the love grows between them. In addition, most of the students lives in hostels for their education they spend very less time with family during school routine but in vacations they stay long terms in their homes and spend time with their siblings which create strong bonding between them. Furthermore in long holidays mostly students starting their daily routine with physical activities like playing games with friends because during opening of schools they do not have time for such activities due to strict time tables of education institutions.

On the other hand, long holidays affect the student education in vacations many of students spend time on other activities and they forget their previous study which affect their grades so, if duration of holidays decline then the students give more time to their subjects. Moreover, in shorter school holidays students spend less time on screen because this era watching screen is most come activity in world so, the students with less holidays give less time to such things and move back to their study with fresh mind.

To conclude, long holidays gives health environment to students and create strong bonding with their loved once. while, short vacation help children to memorize their previous knowledge.

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 limited. While you provide examples like the Pakistani context, the arguments remain quite general. To reach a higher band, ensure that your ideas are more fully extended with deeper analysis rather than just listing benefits or drawbacks. For instance, when discussing the 'forgetting' of studies, you could explain the concept of 'summer learning loss' to add more academic weight to your argument. The position is clear throughout, but the depth of exploration is currently at a mid-level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow your argument. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'In addition', and 'To conclude'. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and there are instances where the connection between ideas is slightly abrupt. For example, the transition between the benefits of family bonding and physical activities could be smoother. Additionally, some referencing is unclear, such as 'this era watching screen is most come activity', which disrupts the logical progression of your argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the precision and variety required for higher bands. You rely on simple phrasing, such as 'create strong bonding' and 'spend time', which are repeated. There are also some awkward collocations and word choice errors, such as 'non beneficial' instead of 'detrimental' or 'disadvantageous', and 'most come activity' instead of 'most common activity'. To improve, focus on using more sophisticated synonyms and ensuring that your word choices are contextually accurate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow. Common issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'long holidays helps'), article usage (e.g., 'in the world'), and pluralization (e.g., 'two month'). There are also punctuation errors, such as missing commas after introductory phrases. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. You should focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy, particularly with verb forms and articles.

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

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