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 numerous countries, primary and secondary school students have summer vacations lasting 60 days or more. Both, lengthy holidays and small vacations are beneficial for students, and can be experienced differently by each individual. Long vacations are important to learn a practical skill, while shorter holidays can be beneficial for both, the parents and students routine.
Greater holidays are highly favorable, for students those interested in learning a new skill. For example, Horse riding, swimming these skills requires commitment and plenty of time, summer vacations can perfectly utilized to learn these activities. Moreover, travelling the world requires proper time and commitment, leisure time allow kids to experience these activities, otherwise students are unable to travel while attending school. Students prefer to spend time along with their grandparents and catch every moment with them, this allows them to go, live and learn from thier grandparents.
Lesser holidays have some sort of benefits, for example a disciplined and dedicated routine is not disturb w. Furthermore, home routine is not disbured as well, in some students life routine is significantly important in life. Majority of parents are been distured if thier kids are not attending school for a long time so if there are lesser leaves then they can managed things timely.
Both have significant amount of importance in life and each individual, and they have different results in life. Both longer and shorter holidays can have great impact on life, the results can be seen via the individuals how they treat their summer vacations.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the task by discussing the value of long school holidays (learning practical skills, travelling, spending time with grandparents) and the arguments in favour of shorter holidays (maintaining a disciplined routine, reducing parental stress). A clear position is established in the introduction, and main ideas are presented throughout the body paragraphs. However, the development of some ideas is limited and somewhat repetitive, particularly in the conclusion. For example, while the point about learning to swim or ride horses is relevant, the explanation remains brief and could be extended further to fully meet higher band criteria. Overall, the prompt is adequately answered, fitting comfortably into the Band 6 descriptor.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the content into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the distinct ideas concerning long and short holidays. However, cohesion is at times faulty and mechanical. For instance, the transition 'Lesser holidays have some sort of benefits' lacks smooth linkage, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the dangling pronoun reference in 'via the individuals how they treat'. Cohesive devices are used, but their application is sometimes repetitive or slightly unnatural, placing this response firmly in the Band 6 category.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-related terms such as 'primary and secondary school', 'summer vacations', 'practical skill', and 'disciplined and dedicated routine'. There are, however, several noticeable errors in word choice, spelling, and collocations, such as 'Greater holidays' instead of 'Longer holidays', 'thier' (spelling error), and words being disbursed or disturbed incorrectly ('home routine is not disbured as well'). Despite these inaccuracies, communication is not impeded, and the vocabulary remains minimally sufficient to convey the intended meaning, aligning with Band 5.5 or 6.0 descriptors.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as conditional or participial structures ('summer vacations can perfectly utilized'). There are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('these skills requires', 'majority of parents are been distured'), incorrect passive constructions, and awkward phrasing ('students those interested'). While these errors are noticeable and occasionally cause mild difficulty for the reader, they do not completely obscure the central message, supporting a Band 5.5 or rounded Band 5.0 evaluation based on overall grammatical control.
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.