Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

In summers several countries close their primary and secondary schools and label them as summer vacations.Longer or shorter summer holidays both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Longer vacations provides children to connect with their parents. In everyday life children spend more in their academic activities, so extended holidays procides them a chance to spend time with their parents where they can involve themselves in learning new skills, perform certain activities such as camping, traveling. As a result their bond with parents nurtures they share their life and stories more often. For example a child with deep connection with his parents share his problems with them.

Longer holidays decrease bills of daycare for working parents. Now parents spend more time with their children, as a result their expenses for

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The student attempts to address the prompt by discussing the value of long school holidays, specifically mentioning family bonding and reduced childcare expenses. However, the response is cut off mid-sentence and fails to discuss the second part of the prompt regarding the arguments in favour of shorter school holidays. Furthermore, the length requirement is severely compromised, as the text contains only 129 words against the mandatory 250-word minimum. Due to the incomplete nature of the answer, the under-length penalty, and the missing discussion points, the response meets the criteria for Band 4.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response shows a basic attempt at paragraphing and introduction of ideas. The writer uses some simple cohesive devices, such as 'For example' and 'As a result', although these are somewhat repetitive. The overall organization is disrupted because the essay is incomplete and breaks off abruptly at the end. Reference words like 'their' and 'them' are used, but referencing can occasionally become slightly unclear due to the compressed nature of the arguments. Paragraphing is initiated but not fully sustained across a complete essay structure. Overall, the coherence and cohesion reflect a Band 5.0 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary for addressing the topic. Words and phrases like 'primary and secondary schools', 'summer vacations', and 'camping, traveling' are relevant to the theme. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'procides them' (provides) and 'decrease bills of daycare' (reduce childcare costs). Repetition of basic words like 'children', 'parents', and 'time' restricts the lexical range. These limitations and errors place the vocabulary performance at a Band 5.0 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as 'In everyday life children spend more in their academic activities, so extended holidays procides them a chance...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and mechanical issues, including spelling mistakes like 'procides' instead of provides, missing words, and punctuation errors. Run-on sentences and comma splices also occur, such as in the opening sentence. Because the range of structures is limited and frequent errors can cause some difficulty for the reader, a Band 5.0 is appropriate.

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

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