Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-14

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)

It is undeniable that holidays are the best time for recreational activities and exploring new countries . In relation to this ,Numerous nations often closed in Summer Vacations for both primary and secondary level approximately for more than 2 months. However, this essay will discuss the value of long school holidays along with favourism of short holidays in the forth coming paragraphs.

To commence with , there are numerous benefits of longer Vacations . The predominat factor is that in long run holidays juveniles are more relaxed and and unwind their all kind of stress . lenghty holidays not only better for children ,but also for the educators who have a whole burden of their academic year . In addition to this , extended vacations are also increasing the bond of family , people prefer to visit multinational places for gaining knowledge and learning new skills from distinct places. To cite an example, students in long break often visit to family members and create a best bond with them . Hence , extended breaks allow students to explore non-academic pursuits like sports, arts, traveling, or learning new personal projects.

In contrast , there are significant drawback of long run holidays such as pupils easily forgot whatever they learn in their academic year . The most prominent factor is that short holidays are better knowledge retaining new things such as learning languages and pronlemtic sums of maths are the better in summer vacations. owing to this , In short vacations it convenient for either in educators or pupils , teachers do not need to waste their time in old revision syllabus . For instance , teachers are just give quick brief discriptions of maths and many other languages .

In conclusion , although holidays are really essential for each and every person for rejuvenate their Physiologyical and psychological , yet longer vacations have some drwabacks in the terms of academic work.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. A clear position is presented throughout the essay. The ideas are generally relevant and supported with explanations and examples, such as mentioning how long breaks allow students to pursue non-academic activities or visit family members, while shorter breaks help prevent learning loss. However, some ideas lack full extension and suffer from minor generalisations. Overall, the task is handled adequately, meeting the requirements of Band 6.5 to 7.0, and is best placed at Band 6.0 due to some under-developed supporting arguments and occasional lack of clarity in how examples link back to the main points.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure containing an introduction, body paragraphs for both views, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'To commence with', 'In addition to this', and 'In contrast', though referencing is sometimes faulty, and certain transitions feel mechanical or repetitive ('The most prominent factor is that'). Paragraphing is used sufficiently, but mechanical cohesion issues and occasional awkward referencing lower the score. The progression of ideas is generally logical, but the connection between sentences occasionally stumbles, aligning the response with Band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'recreational activities', 'physiological and psychological', and 'non-academic pursuits'. However, there are notable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and spelling throughout the response, such as 'favourism', 'predominat', 'lenghty', 'forgot' instead of 'forget', and 'pronlemtic sums'. These errors indicate a limitation in precision, though they generally do not impede overall communication. This performance aligns comfortably with the Band 6 descriptor, where an adequate range is used with some inaccuracy.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilising relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there is a high frequency of grammatical errors involving articles, prepositions, subject-verb agreement, and tense consistency. Examples include 'Numerous nations often closed in Summer Vacations', 'students in long break often visit to family members', and 'teachers are just give quick brief discriptions'. Punctuation errors, such as spaces placed before commas, also occur frequently. While communication is not severely impeded, the accumulation of errors prevents the essay from reaching higher bands, making Band 5.0 or 5.5 appropriate. Band 5.0 reflects the frequent errors that can cause some difficulty for the reader.

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