Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-03

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)

In recent times, many schools in some countries engaged in two months vacations or an holiday longer than that. While this trend allow teachers and student to rest from school activities and create time for school maintenance and projects, others believe shorter holiday is better because it will prevent loss of retained memory and teachers effort in reinforcing previous will be minimal.

The most significant impact of a longer period vacation is relaxation form school activities and safe construction projects. Firstly, most colleges always engaged in long holidays because they want teachers and children to relax from everyday struggling to school and to spend more time with their parents. For instance, parents often wake their children very early so as to be avoid lateness and children also spent quality amount of time in school. Therefore, school authorities believe children deserve this long vacation. Secondly, some certain constructions can't be done during school session, so principals will have to postpone them until holiday time.

However, some people believe shorter school holidays is much beneficiary because they believe children will still be able to recall what they learnt during the previous term. Although most children do not read during longer holidays, shorter school vacations allow them to play for shorter period and return to school quickly. For example, most toddlers often find it difficult to recall what they have learnt after resuming from long period holiday. Furthermore, teachers also have to use majority of their time to bring back last term lesson because most of students couldn't remember. As a result, teachers are also affected when children go for a longer holidays.

In conclusion, the major importance of longer holiday periods is relaxation from school activities and to meet create time for school projects. Consequently, some people argues in favor of shorter holiday because of students ability to recall and teachers effort to reinforce previous lesson.

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. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the point about 'school maintenance' is mentioned but not expanded upon with specific examples. The position is clear, but the arguments could be more thoroughly supported with deeper analysis rather than just listing points. The response covers all requirements of the task, but the depth of discussion is more characteristic of a Band 6 level, as some points are under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'However', and 'Consequently' are used to link ideas. However, there are instances where the flow is slightly mechanical or awkward, such as 'most colleges always engaged in long holidays'. Referencing is generally clear, but the transition between ideas could be smoother to achieve a higher band. The paragraphing is appropriate and contributes to the overall coherence of the essay.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. There are several instances of awkward phrasing or incorrect word choices, such as 'engaged in two months vacations', 'safe construction projects', and 'much beneficiary'. While the meaning is generally clear, the range of vocabulary is limited, and the student struggles with collocations. To improve, the student should focus on using more academic vocabulary and ensuring that words are used in their correct grammatical context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('this trend allow', 'some people argues'), article misuse ('an holiday'), and awkward sentence construction ('teachers effort in reinforcing previous will be minimal'). While these errors do not significantly impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. The student needs to focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and refining sentence structure.

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

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