Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-25

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 6.0)

Most countries allow schools to close for two months or more during the summer. I believe that schools should be closed for month or two to provide students with mental, physical relaxation and personal development.

Long school holidays allow children to recover from mental and physical exhaustion caused by the workload of school tasks and extracurricular activities. It also provides a period of time for personal development by learning new skills, finding new hobbies, joining a summer camp or spending quality time with the family. Parents need to be involved in kids life to help them navigate through vacation time so they do not waste it and have a negative impact on their growth and development. Early year children and teenagers need a period of time to discover who they are, what they want to be.

Many people believe shorter holidays are more appropriate in contrast to long holidays because it causes learning loss of children because there is no reinforcement during that time. People argue that providing shorter holidays with spacing to ensure recovery from the burden of school workload are better than longer holidays. Shorter holidays do not allow the kids complete freedom from school workload to develop new hobbies, skills and in longer holidays students are provided with tasks as homework that are required to be submitted when schools open which solves the loss learning part.

In conclusion, longer holidays are essential for children development and growth. Parents should work on their kids during summer holiday so they learn new skills in addition to retain the knowledge they learned because schools and parents both are responsible for them.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the value of long holidays and the arguments for shorter ones. The position is clear throughout. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding 'learning loss' is mentioned but not fully explored with specific examples or deeper analysis. While the response covers the requirements, the ideas could be extended further to reach a higher band. The conclusion effectively summarizes the main points, but the overall depth of the arguments remains at a functional level rather than a fully developed one.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized into distinct paragraphs, each focusing on a specific aspect of the prompt. There is a clear progression of ideas from the introduction to the conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'It also provides', 'In contrast to', and 'In conclusion' are used to link sentences and paragraphs. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the referencing in the second paragraph (e.g., 'kids life') is a bit informal. Overall, the paragraphing is appropriate, and the flow of information is easy to follow, meeting the criteria for a solid band 6.5 or 7.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary such as 'extracurricular activities', 'personal development', and 'reinforcement'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are occasional inaccuracies in word choice or collocation, such as 'Early year children' instead of 'Young children' or 'kids life' instead of 'children's lives'. The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the message but lacks the sophistication and precision required for a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('for month or two'), subject-verb agreement issues ('it causes learning loss of children'), and awkward phrasing ('retain the knowledge they learned because schools and parents both are responsible for them'). These errors do not impede communication, but they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. A greater variety of error-free complex structures would be needed to move into the 7.0 range.

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

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