Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-31

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)

As it is argued that in most of the countries in the world, the primary and secondary schools are closed for long period in the summer vacations to give the students a desired break and to refresh them for the next challenges.

Sometimes, schools give too long holidays to children. In my perspective, they can be harmful . The long school vacations came make the student lazy and remove their interest in studies. Also, the syllabus is not covered due to long time holidays. In addition , they waste their time in useless activities like scrolling on mobile phone which can be harmful to students for study purposes. All these things results in a poor performance in their annual exams.

In contrast, there are many benefits of shorter school holidays. At first, they develop interest about studies in students . The students complete their work about studies properly and prepare lesson completely.

The syllabus is covered within time and the students gets the chance to revise and prepare their lesson very well. Also, the students do not waste time in useless activities like scrolling on mobile phone which can be harmful for their study purposes. All these things leads to the good results of students in their annual exams which makes their parents and teachers very proud.

In short, there are many benefits of shorter school holidays which makes the student punctual and good. While long time vacations make the students feel free and develop no interest in studies which can be very harmful to students.

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 of ideas is quite limited. The points made, such as 'students become lazy' or 'syllabus is not covered', are repetitive and lack depth or specific examples. The introduction is a sentence fragment rather than a complete statement of position. To reach a higher band, you need to provide more nuanced arguments, such as the psychological benefits of rest or the impact on teacher burnout, and support these with more detailed explanations rather than repeating the same points about mobile phone usage.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or repetitive (e.g., 'Also', 'At first', 'In addition'). The transition between the introduction and the body paragraphs is weak, and the logical progression within paragraphs is hindered by simple sentence structures. While the overall arrangement is coherent, the lack of sophisticated linking words and the repetitive nature of the arguments make the flow feel somewhat disjointed. Improving the variety of cohesive devices would significantly enhance the readability.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. You rely on basic terms like 'good', 'bad', and 'harmful' repeatedly. There are some inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'the long school vacations came make the student lazy' (where 'came' is an error) and 'prepare lesson completely'. To improve, you should aim to use more academic collocations and less common vocabulary. The current range is sufficient to communicate your meaning, but it does not demonstrate the flexibility or precision expected at a higher level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Examples include 'in most of the countries in the world' (unnecessary 'the'), 'long time holidays' (incorrect adjective usage), and 'all these things leads to' (subject-verb agreement error). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with spaces before commas in several places. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to lower the score. You should focus on subject-verb agreement and refining your use of articles and prepositions to improve accuracy.

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

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