Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

In many countries, students leisure long summer vacation for two months or more as primary and secondary schools get close in summers. Many people argue that holidays duration should be shortened. This essay will be discussing positive aspects of extensive vacations.

Firstly, long school holidays are beneficial for students as they go through a hectic academic year doing home works, quizzes, and exam preparations. I believe, summer vacations are essential as they enable students to learn some skills, non-academic pursuits, and perform creative hobbies. Moreover, It gives an opportunity to students to spend quality time with their loved ones especially family, that recharges their energy. This way, they return back to school after holidays with greater motivation and zest.

Conversely, there is a argument, suggesting that school holidays should be less than a month. The reason is that is leads to significant academic loss in students school life. Furthermore, students tend to forget what they studied before that vacations. For example, mathematics concept for algebra were taught to students in the month of May. Then, from June till August, students went for summer vacations. Once they were back to the school by September, most of the students were baffled and unsure about the correct concept and formulas. They all requested revision of that chapter, resulting in time waste and changes in teacher's study schedule.

In conclusion, I firmly believes that advantages of longer summer holidays in primary and secondary schools outweighs the negative aspects. Students become more innovative, enthusiastic, and motivated.

Moreover, they gets to rest well, and spend better time with their family.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones, as seen when the student writes about non-academic pursuits and the risk of academic loss. A clear position is maintained throughout, concluding that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Ideas are extended with relevant examples, such as the algebra concept example in the third paragraph. However, the development of ideas leans towards generalisation and could be pushed further with deeper exploration. Overall, the task is successfully and appropriately covered, aligning well with the Band 6.5 to 7.0 profile.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is logically organised into clear paragraphs with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs addressing each side of the argument, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal progression, such as 'Firstly', 'Conversely', and 'In conclusion'. However, some cohesive relationships are slightly mechanical or faulty, as evidenced by 'there is a argument' and referencing issues like 'that vacations' instead of 'those vacations'. Paragraphing is sufficient, but transitional flow between sentences could be smoother. This places the response comfortably at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'hectic academic year', 'non-academic pursuits', and 'baffled'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'leisure long summer vacation' instead of 'enjoy long summer vacations', 'schools get close' instead of 'schools close', and 'time waste' instead of 'a waste of time'. Spelling is generally accurate, but these lexical inaccuracies restrict the score to Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are several noticeable grammatical errors and awkward phrasing that persist, such as 'holidays duration should be shortened', 'It gives an opportunity', 'they returns back', 'mathematics concept for algebra were taught', and 'I firmly believes'. Despite these errors, meaning is rarely impeded, and the sentence structures remain reasonably varied. This corresponds to a Band 6.0.

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