Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

Holidays play a vital role in the nourishment of children crains and minds, because these are the free days when children spend their time with family and play a lot of games. So, closing primary and secondary schools for two months or more in the summer holidays are very important in modifying their minds.

Due to these holidays most of the children were happy and can lead a stressless educational life with no depression. Long school holidays for children for about 2 months is god but extending it to a hingher number of days can lead the child's brain to totally distract from education, and they will be focused on wasting time and enjoying. For example, a child will be happy and playful if given 2 months of holidays, he or she will surely enjoy their holidays, while if they were given more than 2 months of holidays such as 3,4 or 5 months the students will completely change their mindset and they can never pop up with the going classes in school.

On the other hand, shorter holidays play a quick significance on students because a short holiday break can give a mental relaxation to the child who is strictly restricted to education. For example, a 1 or 2 days of holidays can make the person to chill and go for a ride or a walk so that he or she can temporarly recover from their stressful lifestyle.

In conclusion, I would say that have a longer period of holidays are not much preferable than a shorter period of holidays.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student attempts to address both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long holidays (mental relaxation, avoiding stress) and the arguments for shorter holidays (mental recovery without distraction). However, the development of ideas is limited and somewhat repetitive. For example, the argument regarding long holidays mentions that extending them too much causes distraction, but this point lacks concrete, well-developed support beyond general assertions. Additionally, there are minor confusions in addressing the specific nuances of the prompt, leading to a partial development of the central position. The response meets the minimum word count requirement, but the ideas require deeper elaboration to reach a higher band. Therefore, this performance aligns closely with the Band 5 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The text exhibits some organizational structure with basic paragraphing, separating the introduction, the discussion on long holidays, the counter-argument on shorter holidays, and a brief conclusion. However, the overall progression is disrupted by mechanical and sometimes faulty cohesive devices, such as 'Due to these holidays' and 'On the other hand, shorter holidays play a quick significance'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in pronoun usage ('he or she', 'they'), which makes the logical flow hard to follow at times. Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal logical transitions between sentences are weak. This corresponds well to a Band 5 level of coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary for the task. Words such as 'nourishment', 'stressless', 'distract', and 'temporarly' (temporary) show an attempt to express ideas beyond basic terms, but these choices often suffer from awkward collocations or incorrect word forms. There are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'crains' instead of 'brains', 'god' instead of 'good', and 'hingher' instead of 'higher', which occasionally cause strain for the reader. While communication is achieved, the lexical limitations and errors place this response firmly in the Band 5 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as in the opening sentence ('Holidays play a vital role... because these are the free days...'). However, attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty, leading to noticeable grammatical errors and awkward phrasing (e.g., 'closing primary and secondary schools... are very important', 'have a longer period of holidays are not much preferable'). Punctuation and article usage are also inconsistent throughout the text. Frequent errors in grammar and clause construction can cause some difficulty for the reader, matching the standard descriptors for Band 5.

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.