Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-16

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)

The growing prevalence of summer vacations in both primary and secondary schools has prompted a closer examination of their implications for individuals and society as a whole. Although two months break in summer has some drawbacks, I believe that students should get a long break from study in hot weather. This essay with discuss both divergent arguments for shorter and longer holidays before reaching a reasoned conclusion.

One of the strongest arguments in favour of two months break from school is that students can have better physical and psychological health. This is largely because children can stay away from mandatory study courses. In particular, kids can focus on their hobbies rather than stressing about the academic pressure. For example, consider a primary school child who has longer school vacations, he is more likely to be enthusiastic, which can subsequently improve their emotional state. This illustrated how long holidays can contribute in students students healthy development. Therefore, schools should implement policy for two months or more summer holidays.

A further consideration is that summer breaks should be short. The underlying reason is that students may loose their focus from studies. This is precisely relevant when children return to school after a break, they find difficult to recall the previous learnings. Consequently, children score less marks in exams or class test, which can have significant implications at individual level. Taken together, these factors suggest that students should have less school holidays.

In conclusion, although shorter school holidays have valid arguments, I believe that both primary and secondary schools should be closed for two months in summer. This is mainly because of the health benefits to students , which indicate that break from study helps in emotional stability of kids.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones, maintaining a clear position throughout. In the second and third paragraphs, the writer presents and supports ideas regarding health benefits and the potential loss of academic focus. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or repetitive, such as the generalisations about children scoring lower marks or facing emotional challenges. While the essay meets the requirements of the prompt, extending the supporting examples further with more depth would elevate the task response to a higher band. Overall, the performance aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing each side of the prompt, and a concise conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally mechanical or faulty. For instance, transitional phrases like 'This is largely because' and 'A further consideration is that' are used, but referencing is sometimes imprecise, as seen with 'consider a primary school child who has longer school vacations, he is more likely...', which mixes singular and plural pronouns ('he' and 'their'). Despite these minor cohesion and referencing issues, the progression of ideas remains clear. This fits the Band 6 descriptor profile.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'prevalence', 'implications', 'psychological health', and 'emotional stability'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text. Examples include 'two months break' instead of 'a two-month break', 'score less marks' instead of 'get lower marks' or 'score fewer marks', and 'loose their focus' where the misspelling of 'lose' occurs alongside a minor lexical slip. Additionally, the phrase 'students students healthy development' contains a repetition error. These limitations keep the lexical score at Band 6, as the vocabulary is adequate to convey meaning despite inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses (e.g., 'Although two months break in summer has some drawbacks, I believe that...'). However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('This essay with discuss' instead of 'will discuss'), missing articles ('two months break', 'after a break, they find difficult'), and pronoun inconsistency ('a primary school child... he... their'). Punctuation also falters occasionally, as seen with unnecessary spacing and a comma splice near the end. Because these errors do not severely impede overall communication, the grammar performance is safely at Band 6.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.