Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

Across many countries, schools are close for long holidays in summer, while long holidays provide many benefits to student, shouter school break also have some important advantages. This essay will discuss on both views.

Starting with long holidays, these holidays are most important for teen age learners especially in Asian or Arabs countries, because of excessive heat in summer. Some time weather are too hot, and school have no basic facilities like air conditioner, especially in developing countries like Pakistani and Indian nation still deprived from basic facilities like electricity. So if parents send their children to school due to shortage of electricity student cannot survive in school especially when temperature is too high this may cause children to become ill or even some time cause death due to heatwave. For instance heatwave cause many death in Pakistan every summer. Due to this summer break is necessary for pupils.

On the other hand, long holiday also have some dark side, student cannot cover their syllabus, then student feel their self between the devil and the deep blue sea, so they burn candle at both ends to complete their syllabus, which is extremely challenging for learners.

The short leave is suitable for this problem, if schools provides basic services like fan or A/C it can help student to complete their work on time and they don't feel depress. This is beneficial for both learns and schools.

At conclusion, if school provide basic utilities to learners then short holiday is best option, if they don't provide this then long holiday is only solution for learners to ensure their health safety.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long school holidays (safety and extreme heat protection) and the arguments in favour of shorter holidays (completing the syllabus and reducing academic pressure). A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas leans heavily on a single main argument for long holidays—extreme heat and the lack of basic utilities in developing countries such as Pakistan—which makes the response somewhat narrow and repetitive in its support. Examples are provided, but they tend to over-generalise and lack broader perspective. This places the response comfortably at Band 6, as it addresses all parts of the task with relevant ideas, though some areas remain slightly under-developed or limited in scope.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is arranged into logical paragraphs, starting with an introduction, moving to body paragraphs covering both views, and finishing with a concluding statement. Overall progression is visible, but the cohesion between and within sentences is frequently mechanical and faulty. For instance, transitional phrases like 'Starting with long holidays' and 'At conclusion' are awkward or non-standard. Referencing is also unclear at times, such as 'student cannot cover their syllabus, then student feel their self...', which disrupts the flow. Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal transitions need much better control to achieve a higher band. These issues align well with the Band 5 descriptors, where organisation is present, but cohesive devices and referencing are frequently inadequate or inaccurate.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate basic points about weather, education, and school facilities. However, there is a very limited range with noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'shouter school break', 'teen age learners', 'Some time weather are too hot', and 'feel their self between the devil and the deep blue sea'. Idiomatic expressions are attempted but misused or awkwardly integrated. Spelling and morphological errors ('depress' instead of 'depressed', 'learns' instead of 'learners') occur regularly. These limitations mean the lexical resource is minimally adequate, fitting the Band 5 descriptor where errors cause some difficulty and vocabulary range is restricted.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional structures in the conclusion ('if school provide basic utilities... then short holiday is best option'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the text. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement ('schools are close', 'weather are too hot', 'school have no basic facilities'), missing articles, and incorrect verb tenses ('heatwave cause many death'). Punctuation is also problematic, leading to severe run-on sentences, such as 'Some time weather are too hot, and school have no basic facilities like air conditioner, especially in developing countries like Pakistani and Indian nation still deprived from basic facilities like electricity.' These persistent errors place the grammar securely at Band 5.

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

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