Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-14
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)
Long summer holiday for primary and secondary school plays a significant role in students historical development and extra activities yet, there also a debate for short time vacation. From my perspective both holidays are preferable for educational development and future.
To begin with, we must need to admit that long term holiday plays a vital role in school students life. Initially, when a student gets summer vacation for long time, they try to visit many kind of historical places. Most of the historical places are held quite far from their accomodation, thats why they need long vacation. When they visits historical places they will be able to acknowledge numerous information about country and our culture. Another popular reason is children will be able to connect with many types of social work or extra curicullum activities such as volunteer. Finally the students also be able to improve their skills like english proficiency, computer skills and 2 months is more then enough to make themselves productive.
On the other hand, shorter school holidays also play an important role in school life. Shorter vacation help students to maintain their academic consistency, they need to stay away from school for a long time. If a student went to school regularly, they will be able to learn a lot of things whiich are reliable with our day to day life. Students also get a chance to meet with many people and it helps to enhance their communication skill. When a student go to school they get engage with many physical extivities which are quite benificial for their health.
In conclusion, long & short time vacations both are important on the basis of situation. Longer vacation help to increase our historical knowledge and made us productive along with, shorter holidays help to maintain academic consistency and improve physical health.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
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 of ideas is somewhat limited. For example, the point about 'historical places' is repetitive and lacks specific detail. The argument for shorter holidays is also quite general, focusing on 'academic consistency' without fully exploring the implications for student burnout or parental convenience. While the position is clear, the ideas could be extended further to reach a higher band. The introduction is a bit vague, and the conclusion simply restates the main points without adding a final synthesis.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the argument. There is a logical progression from the benefits of long holidays to the benefits of shorter ones. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly unnatural, such as the repetitive use of 'Initially' and 'Finally' within the same paragraph. Referencing is occasionally unclear, for instance, the phrase 'which are reliable with our day to day life' is confusing in context. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but the transition between ideas could be smoother to improve the overall flow.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'historical development' instead of 'personal development' and 'reliable with' instead of 'relevant to'. Spelling errors like 'accomodation', 'curicullum', and 'extivities' are present. While the student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'academic consistency' and 'english proficiency', the range is limited, and the errors occasionally draw attention to themselves, though they do not prevent the reader from understanding the main message.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('long term holiday plays', 'students also be able to') and missing articles ('get engage with many physical extivities'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While the meaning is generally clear, the high frequency of errors in basic grammar structures limits the score. To improve, the student should focus on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of modal verbs and articles.
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.