Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-30

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)

In world most of the regions in summer mostly at the primary and secondary schools level holidays held for more than two months. Most of the people including me it is good for young students. Because Asian side of the world like India and Pakistan, weather is very hot in summer temperature has been reached around 50 degree Centigrade. But some people argued that holidays time period should me reduce from 2 months, because they thought that it effect the students learning.

Firstly, long holidays hold some important values specially in summer days due to hot weather. Students of the primary and secondary level can not bear the increasing temperature (50 degree centigrade). In this Temperature heat stock has been at top level, students become ill. However, it is very necessary students remains in their homes in days, because there should not be compromise on child's health. Take an example of the Pakistan every school has a proper planning and organized system to cover their syllabus in form form of summer prep. And parents like to help their children for completion this task. And such way they continuously engaged their children with studies. Thus, due to hot temperature in Pakistan there should be the long period of holidays.

Most of the people argued that time period of the school holidays should be short , because they thought that students waste their time mostly and spend most the time in phone by playing games watching cartoons. Long time period of the holidays become the reason of this wastage of time and they remain away from studies.

To sum up, I believe that there should be not promised on the heath of the students at primary and secondary level in Pakistan like countries, due to hot temperature around 40 t0 50 degree centigrade and there should be the long period of school 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 focus is heavily skewed toward the situation in Pakistan, which limits the global perspective requested by the prompt. While the arguments regarding health and heat are relevant, the discussion on the disadvantages of long holidays is less developed and relies on generalisations about students playing games on phones. To improve, ensure that arguments are balanced and supported with more varied examples that reflect a broader context beyond a single country.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, and there is a clear attempt to use linking words like 'Firstly', 'However', and 'To sum up'. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes hindered by awkward phrasing and repetitive sentence structures. Cohesive devices are occasionally used mechanically or incorrectly, such as 'In such way they continuously engaged'. The referencing is sometimes unclear, and the transition between the benefits of holidays and the counter-arguments could be smoother. Improving the variety of cohesive devices and ensuring they are used naturally would enhance the flow of the essay.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for a higher band. There is frequent repetition of basic terms like 'holidays', 'students', and 'temperature'. Some word choices are unnatural or inaccurate, such as 'heat stock' (likely meaning heatstroke) and 'there should be not promised on the heath' (likely meaning compromise on health). To reach a higher band, you should focus on using more sophisticated collocations and topic-specific vocabulary related to education and climate, while also paying closer attention to word forms and spelling.

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 clarity. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'holidays held'), missing articles, and awkward sentence construction (e.g., 'Most of the people including me it is good'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with commas and capitalization. While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of errors in basic grammar prevents the response from reaching a higher band. Focusing on sentence structure, verb tenses, and proofreading for basic errors will significantly improve your score.

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

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