Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-21

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 many countries summer vacations are period of schools closure for two or more months. These holiday are provides opportunity to escape boring routine, and learn some thing new. These long holidays are source of fun and learning. In contrast very long holidays can lead to poor academic performance in future.

The summer holidays are source of fun and amusement, it give us escape from our boring routine and provide a chance to learn new thing. Some people travel and spent time with their families and collect some loving memories. Children have ample time for playing games and exploring new hobbies, so these holidays give them chance to boost their creativity. Many students learn some type of extra skills in summer holidays that help them in building new passions and skills. For example, my mother love music, so i normally attended music classes. In these classes i learn, developed love of music.

In contrast, these holiday have their drawbacks as well, long term disengagement from studies, can cause lack of stimulation for less fun task like studies, especially in children. Students may forgot some lessons. It is method of functioning for our brain to remember thing of our routine and forget extra noise to give brain at it maximum performance. For example, when i was a child i used to forgot all of my previous lessons during holiday, and after holidays my mother put extra effort in teaching me those lesson again. Our brain many times remove the things we are not recalling from memory results in loss of performance.

In conclusion, long school holiday provides opportunities to grow and learn new skill, but on the other hand can be the source of distraction and can lead to poor academic performance.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. Ideas are extended with some relevant support, such as the mention of family time and personal experiences, for instance, 'my mother love music, so i normally attended music classes.' However, some points tend to over-generalise or remain slightly under-developed, falling short of full academic extension. The structure includes an introduction, body paragraphs covering both perspectives, and a conclusion. Overall, the task is adequately handled and meets the expectations of Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing separating the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion. Ideas are logically sequenced, moving from the benefits of holidays to their drawbacks. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, sentences within the body paragraphs occasionally lack smooth transitional links, relying heavily on basic cohesive devices or commas where subordinate clauses or conjunctions are needed. Referencing is generally clear, though minor abrupt shifts occur, such as jumping directly into personal examples without bridging phrases. These features align well with the Band 6 descriptor for coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating ideas about routines, skills, and memory. There are several attempts to use less common items, such as 'disengagement,' 'stimulation,' and 'creativity.' However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'vacations are period,' 'thing' instead of things, 'spent' instead of spend, and 'forgot' instead of forget. Despite these inaccuracies, the errors do not impede overall communication. The vocabulary control and range best reflect a Band 5.5 performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the response. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues like 'These holiday are provides,' missing articles such as 'in summer holidays,' and tense inconsistencies like 'i normally attended' when discussing a general habit. Punctuation errors, such as comma splices in 'The summer holidays are source of fun and amusement, it give us escape,' also occur regularly. While the meaning remains generally clear, the density of errors keeps the score at Band 5.0.

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.