Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-19

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 6.0)

Almost every primary and secondary schools in many nations get closed for two months or more during the summer season as a summer holiday. In this essay, I will discuss about the value of long school holidays which can actually help children for practical learnings and I will also state about the benefits of short school breaks which will not disrupt their pace of study.

On the one hand, children can spent time for practical learning and work to improve their personal skills during the long summer holidays. Rather than direct learning, there are various activities that pupils can learn informally. One is travelling, as children can learn about different cultures, traditions, and religions. They can also develop knowledge about the history of a particular place. Additionally, they can also work on developing their hobbies or to improve the personal traits. Spending time on doing things they are really interested in, can help to make them mentally fit. As a result, such informal way of learning can provide a wide range of knowledge which is necessary to shape a child's habit. For example, children can travel to the remote places with their parents and can observe the demanding life of locals living there. This can help them to develop the feeling of grateful about their life.

On the other hand, providing a short period as a holiday can be more beneficial to the children. This is because, long gap between academic learning can make them distracted and they can loss the pace of formal study. Children often prefer to spend time on travelling and doing activities in which they are interested in, and investing much time in such activities may distract them from academic learning. During the short holidays, they can take a rest and relax rather than planning for any other activities. Taking a short gap from continuous study can actually improve the mental strength. As a result, teenagers can focus on doing short term activities that really makes them happy. For instance, parents can organise a family gathering which will make their children close to them and build emotional connection.

In conclusion, children can get knowledge from different informal ways by getting long summer holidays, however this will distract them and they will loss their pace of formal learning.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt, exploring both the value of long school holidays (such as practical learning, travelling, and personal development) and the arguments in favour of shorter holidays (maintaining study pace and avoiding distraction). A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. The ideas are extended and supported with relevant explanations and examples, such as observing local lifestyles during travel and organising family gatherings. Although some ideas could be slightly more deeply developed to reach the highest bands, the task is fully addressed in line with the Band 7 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay presents a clear logical organisation with an introduction, well-defined body paragraphs addressing each side of the prompt, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used effectively to connect ideas, such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'Additionally'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct arguments. However, referencing is occasionally imprecise ('such informal way', 'they can loss the pace'), which prevents the response from achieving a higher band score. Overall, the progression of ideas is easy to follow, aligning well with the Band 7 descriptor for logical organisation.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'informal learning', 'personal traits', and 'emotional connection'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'schools in many nations get closed' instead of 'close', 'help children for practical learnings', and the spelling error 'loss' instead of 'lose'. While these minor lexical inaccuracies do not impede communication, they restrict the score to a solid Band 6 level, where an adequate range is displayed alongside some recurring errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional and participial clauses like 'Spending time on doing things they are really interested in, can help to make them mentally fit.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('Almost every primary and secondary schools... get closed'), incorrect prepositions ('help children for', 'grateful about'), and misuse of articles. These errors occur regularly, though they rarely impede overall communication, placing the response firmly within the Band 6 criteria for grammatical control.

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

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