Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-13
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 5.0)
Primary and secondary educational institutes are closed for almost two months or more in the summer holidays around the world. There are some reasons for extended school holidays as students travel and do practical work in it. On the other hand, some believe that shorter span of holidays are good for students.
The primary reason for long school vactions is that students spend their time in practical work. Some schools give summer vacation homework and projects to puplis. These projects require a specific time period and two to three months vacations are concidered best for them. Moreover, in the long vacations many students join the summer camps to learn different activities. For instance, Chinese shools provide three months summer vacations that includes the two months in summer camp in another city with different schools students and one month is to log their daily household activites with their familes.
On the other hand, some people feel that shorter schools holidays would be a good option for students. When school vacations are three months long students daily routine is disturbed and they lose the interest in their studies. One month or shorter span of holidays keep the students on track with necessary tasks to complete at their home.
In conclusion, although long school vactions helps with practical work and wellbeing, while shorter span holidays are also important to students to keep them on track.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long holidays such as practical work and summer camps, alongside arguments for shorter holidays like maintaining routines and preventing learning loss. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and lacks deep extension. Furthermore, as noted in the length check, the response contains only 232 words, failing to meet the minimum 250-word requirement. This under-length impacts the overall fullness of the task response. Consequently, the score is capped at Band 5.0 due to the incomplete word count and under-developed ideas.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is divided into a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing an overall logical arrangement. Paragraphing is attempted appropriately. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally faulty or mechanical. For instance, transitional phrases like 'On the other hand' are used correctly, but referencing and logical flow within paragraphs can be slightly disjointed, as seen in the conclusion: 'although long school vactions helps with practical work and wellbeing, while shorter span holidays are also important...'. This mixture of grammatical conjunctions leads to a fractured sentence structure. Overall, the organizational structure fits the Band 6 descriptor.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'educational institutes', 'practical work', and 'wellbeing'. However, there are several noticeable spelling errors ('vactions' instead of vacations, 'puplis' instead of pupils, 'shools' instead of schools) and minor word-choice inaccuracies ('shorter span of holidays' instead of spans). While these errors do not severely impede communication, they reflect a limited control over spelling and word formation, placing the response firmly in the Band 5 category.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure. For example, the student attempts relative clauses and conditional-like contrast structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('shorter span of holidays are good', 'vacations is that students... students daily routine is disturbed', 'long school vactions helps'), missing articles, and awkward punctuation. These errors require some effort from the reader to interpret, which prevents the score from rising above Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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