Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-22

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)

Schools plays important role in student life. As student work hard to get good marks in exam after studying whole year. Primary and secondary school give students a summer holidays for two months or more in many countries. There are many benifits to the student as they get break from study and can develop other skills in their life.

By providing long holidays to students helps them to learn different skills such as swimming which helps them in future. It also better to have holiday during summer as there are many countries where temperature gets increased and it makes difficult to live in such temperature. In such time many school provide holiday to students because it affects the health of the students. In holiday students can manage to spent time with their family or friends as it was very difficult to spent time when school are opened because their majority of day was past in school and remain time to do their homework. So holiday helps them to get relaxed and do outdoor activities without worring of study and exam.

Many people thinks that time of school holidays should be shorter because by having long holidays it makes difficult for student to again corp with their studies. After having summer holidays student cannot focus or concentration on their study for some period of time. It can be overcome if the holidays were kept shorter because by having shorter holidays children can manage to study again without having any difficult.

The holidays should kept short or long it is based on people perceptives but there should be summer holiday for students.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. The student presents a clear position and supports ideas with relevant examples, such as learning skills like swimming, coping with hot weather, and spending time with family. However, some ideas remain somewhat repetitive or under-developed, particularly in the discussion on academic retention. While the main aspects of the prompt are covered, the depth of explanation fluctuates, which places the response securely in the Band 6 category. To reach a higher band, the student should ensure that all arguments are fully extended with more specific examples and nuanced reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement and logical flow of ideas, progressing from an introduction to the value of holidays, counter-arguments for shorter breaks, and a brief conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised, though paragraph breaks could be managed more effectively to separate distinct concepts. Cohesive devices are used, but they are sometimes mechanical or basic, such as 'By providing long holidays', 'In such time', and 'So holiday helps them'. Referencing is generally clear, but occasional clunky transitions prevent the response from achieving a higher score. Overall, the organizational structure is clear enough to ensure the reader can follow the argument without difficulty.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating ideas related to education, health, and family. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary and set phrases, such as 'outdoor activities', 'temperature gets increased', and 'perceptives'. However, there are noticeable word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'benifits' instead of benefits, 'corp' instead of cope, and 'perceptives' instead of perspectives. While these inaccuracies do not severely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5. Expanding word choice and mastering collocations will help improve this score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional and causative relationships (e.g., 'As student work hard... Primary and secondary school give students...'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors involving subject-verb agreement, articles, and tense consistency, such as 'Schools plays', 'As student work', 'majority of day was past', and 'The holidays should kept short'. Punctuation is also inconsistent in places, with run-on sentences and fragments. These errors indicate a limitation in grammatical control, meaning the text sits comfortably at a Band 5.0 level. Focusing on basic agreement and sentence boundary rules will yield immediate improvements.

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