Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-20

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 the past, when most schools curriculums were spread across three semesters in a year, schools go on mini- vacations of one weeks per semester. However, nowadays, elementary and high schools take two months summer holidays. This essay will discuss the benefits of long school breaks and some opinions about the advantages of shorter vacations.

An academic session goes on for 10 consistent months for some schools, which is too long for children to focus mainly on school work and getting good grades.This long period of learning affects their assimilation level. Summer holidays are opportunity for the young ones to catch up with other activities outside their academics. For instance, during summer vacation, a child to acquire a new skills like swimming, painting and others. Which are also important life skills . Additionally, during the holidays the teachers can take some time off to recharge their minds and review their methods of teaching. And do the necessary adjustments if need be.

On the other hand, some people believe that shorter breaks are more beneficial for schools. This is because some teachers are not paid during these period. This becomes a huge challenge as the may not be able to fund their basic needs .Two or more months without salary leave such staff stranded. Others are of the opinion that, when students stay too long at home witthout active learning ,they lose some or all that they have learnt during the previous academic sessions. Some of these children who are left with several devises unsupervised inculcate bad habits and practices into their daily lives.

In conclusion, in most countries, schools close for some months for summer holidays which is beneficial for both the students and staff .However ,other believe shorter vacations are better as this helps students not to deviate from what the have learnt the whole year in school.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. The position is clear throughout the essay. The ideas are generally relevant and supported with examples, such as children acquiring new skills like swimming or painting, and teachers taking time to recharge. However, some ideas could have been further extended or developed with more depth to reach higher band levels. For instance, the discussion on students losing academic ground is introduced but not fully elaborated with specific consequences. Nevertheless, all core requirements of the task are adequately met, demonstrating a solid understanding of the prompt's demands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, separating the introduction, the value of long holidays, the counter-arguments for shorter breaks, and a brief conclusion. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'Additionally', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion', to guide the reader through the text. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in fragmented sentence structures like 'Which are also important life skills' and 'And do the necessary adjustments if need be.' Furthermore, paragraph transitions can feel slightly abrupt. Overall, the logical progression is apparent, but the management of cohesive devices prevents the text from achieving a higher band score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'assimilation level', 'recharge their minds', and 'unsupervised inculcate'. However, there are notable word-choice and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'curriculums' instead of 'curricula', 'devises' instead of 'devices', and 'wittout' instead of 'without'. Some collocations are slightly unnatural, such as 'elementary and high schools take two months summer holidays'. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without severely impeding communication, placing the response firmly in the band 6 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors that occasionally disrupt the flow. Examples include fragment sentences ('Which are also important life skills'), incorrect prepositional usage ('during these period'), subject-verb agreement issues ('the may not be able'), and missing articles. Punctuation errors, such as spaces placed before commas and full stops, are also noticeable throughout the text. While the errors do not completely obscure the meaning, their frequency prevents the attainment of a band 7 score.

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

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