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)
In most of countries, the elementary and tertiary schools were closed for two or more months in summer vacations. This allows students to spend more time with family and they explores other aspects of life. But some people arugued that longer vacations distrubes the childern's routine, so they prefer shorter school vacations.
On the one hand, peers specially the younger students were become frustrated due to strick routine in their schools, so they need more holidays.Furthermore, some schools have very limited curiculum, they mainly focused on there sylabus, so learners got very few exposure to sports, to nature and they become frustrated and stressed. Therefore longer summer vacations are essentail as it boosts their mental health because they are now have more things to do like playing cricket with friends, rather then focusing on single book.
On the other hand, some students were poor in their studies ,so they need more time and concentration in their school, and they will become slow learner in longer holidays , so they need shorter vacations. Moreover, shorter summar holidays helps learners to easily get to their routines, as they had very little time to be distracted from their studies, as they had shorter period to complete their summer work, so they focused more on their work rather than other activities.So shorter holidays are benefical for students who want to become successful.
In conclusion, both shorter and longer vacations have positive poitns but shorter vacations are preferable as they allow students speciaaly the weak ones to more focused on their studies and acheived good grades. Longer vacations also helps students to decrease their school stress as they had due to the continuos studying.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
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. The writer introduces relevant ideas, such as reducing school stress, spending time with family, and maintaining study routines, which directly answer the prompt's two main questions. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive, with generalisations such as learners getting very few exposure to sports. The position is clear throughout the essay, concluding with a preference for shorter holidays. While the arguments are generally relevant, they lack deep extension and specific supporting examples from the writer's own knowledge, placing the performance at a Band 6 level.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure featuring an introduction, two body paragraphs representing opposing views, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal shifts between paragraphs, such as On the one hand and On the other hand. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, and sentence-to-sentence links can be abrupt, as seen in expressions like Therefore longer summer vacations are essentail as it boosts... Furthermore, paragraphing is utilised, but the flow within paragraphs is occasionally disrupted by run-on sentences and punctuation errors, which reflects a Band 6 level of coherence and cohesion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as curriculum, mental health, concentration, and successful. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary like distrubes, essentail, and summar, but these are marred by frequent spelling errors. Word choice is sometimes unnatural or imprecise, for example, peers specially the younger students were become frustrated and got very few exposure. Although communication is not impeded by these lexical inadequacies, the frequency of spelling and word-formation errors keeps the lexical resource score at a Band 5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though attempts at complex structures frequently contain grammatical errors. Examples include tense inconsistencies such as In most of countries, the elementary and tertiary schools were closed and students were poor in their studies, so they need more time. There are also persistent issues with subject-verb agreement and article usage, such as childern's routine and focus on single book. While some simple sentences are accurate, frequent errors in grammar and punctuation can cause minor difficulty for the reader, placing this criterion solidly at a Band 5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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