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)

Many people argue that the primary and secondary schools in many countries remain close for a very long period of time in the summer holidays. I think it affects student in both terms, positively as well as negatively. In long summer holidays, the students can do online courses that would be very benefcial for them but unfortunately, it doesn't happened, most of time.

Usually in many Asian countries, the schools close for two or more months due to an unbearable hot weather. There are several cases reported in recent years, that explained many kids fainted and even died because of extreme summer. Thats why, the government decided to give 2 or 3 months holidays in such countries. The mian advantage of long holidays is that students stay at home and get safe from harsh weather. Some student do online courses like digital marketing, graphic designing, Web development etc. Nevertheless, the are many students who just waste their time in sleeping or useless activities. Furthermore, they also forget the syllabus that they learned at school and after vacations, they become fully dumb. In this way a lot of student dissipate their time in long vacation that affects them badly.

In contrast, the shorter school holidays have a very pleasant affect on students. It's a very good time for students to get relax from busy daily routine. Moreover, in shorter vacation, students usually do not forget their school work or syllabus unlike long school vacations. In shorter holidays, normally students have to assign any interesting porject from the school, that engage them to learning even if they are at their homes.

Conseaquently, the short term holidays are better for student's mental heath and their studies as well. But in long summer holidays students do not pay attention to their studies and even forget their syllabus too, because they spare their precious time in useless activities that do not influence their actual life.

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. While you provide a clear reason for long holidays (extreme weather), the discussion on the 'value' of these holidays is limited to a brief mention of online courses, which you then contradict by stating students 'waste their time'. The argument for shorter holidays is better supported by the mention of academic continuity. To reach a higher band, ensure that your ideas are fully extended with more specific examples or logical consequences, rather than simply stating that students become 'dumb' or 'waste time'.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore', 'In contrast', and 'Consequently' to link ideas. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly inaccurate, such as using 'Consequently' to introduce a summary rather than a direct result. Additionally, some transitions between sentences within paragraphs are abrupt. To improve, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensure that the progression of ideas within each paragraph is smoother and more naturally connected.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, including terms like 'unbearable', 'dissipate', and 'mental health'. However, there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'fully dumb', 'pleasant affect' (should be 'effect'), and 'assign any interesting project' (should be 'be assigned'). These errors occasionally hinder the precision of your argument. To improve, focus on learning the correct collocations for academic writing and avoid informal or overly simplistic descriptors like 'dumb' when discussing academic performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement ('it doesn't happened', 'the are many students'), article usage, and pluralisation ('student' instead of 'students'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage and sentence boundaries. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to distract the reader. To improve, focus on proofreading for basic grammatical agreement and ensuring that your complex sentences are constructed with correct verb forms.

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