Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-18
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)
Long summer holidays given to childrens in primary and secondary schools plays a fundamental role in shaping childrens overall mental health and time to recover from the long academic year . While shorter holidays also helps faculties to give them enough time to complete more syllabus , along with that it helps children to retain memory about what they studied in ongoing academic year.
Long summer breaks especially for two months give enough time to children to recover from the all type of stress that they gain from school academics , it gives them enough time to mentally restart their mind and start a new fresh academic year. Also academic staffs get reliefs from ongoing hectic school timetable. Moreover it gives children time for self introspection , try new things apart from academics and develop their cognitive thinking ability and street smartness aswell . For example - One of my two friend used his time to study and prepare for next academic year and was not able to developed any kind of extra skills while other friend participated in various types of sports , went on trips and was bale to develop essential life skills . This shows long vacation plays an important role in shaping childrens mental ability also it gives enough time for academic staff for their own lookout.
However shorter holidays is also beneficial for ongoing school childrens. As in long vacation students might forget what was taught in school in previous terms . While this significantly reduced in shorter holidays as it reatins maximum memory and also gives enough time for students to start fresh . For example : From my personal experiene I can't remember many of syllabus after long vacations . Thus small vaction also plays an important role.
In conclusion we can say thay long vacation is beneficial for student to develop their own personal life skills while shorter vacation helps student to retain it's maximum of syllabus
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. Ideas are extended and supported with relevant examples, such as the comparison between two friends spending their long break differently. However, some arguments tend to over-generalise, and certain points, such as the faculty benefits, are somewhat under-developed. Nevertheless, all requirements of the task are adequately met, aligning well with the Band 6.5 to Band 7 descriptor range.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a logical organisation and overall progression. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, body paragraphs focusing on long and short holidays, and the conclusion. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'While shorter holidays also helps', 'Moreover', and 'However', although some connections are slightly mechanical or repetitive in structure. Referencing is generally clear, though occasional awkward phrasing affects the smooth flow between sentences. These features place the response firmly in the Band 6 category.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'introspection', 'cognitive thinking', and 'street smartness'. However, there are noticeable word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, including pluralisation issues like 'childrens' instead of 'children', spelling mistakes like 'bale' instead of 'baled' or 'able', and awkward collocations like 'gain from school academics'. These lexical inaccuracies prevent the score from reaching a higher band, but communication is not significantly impeded.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors with subject-verb agreement, such as 'long summer holidays... plays' instead of 'play', and 'shorter holidays also helps' instead of 'help'. Punctuation and article usage also show persistent flaws. While complex structures are attempted, errors in basic grammar occur frequently, aligning the response with the Band 5.5 or Band 6 descriptor.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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