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)
Various countries have different vacation period for primary and secondary students in the school. Some agrue for long summer holidays whereas other country have short vacation for students.
In western countries like Canada, US kids get long summer hoildays. The benefits of getting longer break period in summer will all students to do lots of extra activites as well will promot them to take part in social and culture activites. For example, kids like to play indoor and outdoor sports, this will allow a child to dvelop their mental and physical abilites to keep them more stronger. While some kids don't get time in to learn defense like karate as such activites are very important for a child's well physics.
During summer childern love to travel and visit their grandparents. Childerns get to know their loved ones and spend time with them by learning some of the gardening activites. For instance, grandparents like to cook various meals for their grandchilds, staying with them some kids learn cooking as well they learn some household works. the nature of affection and caring will be built in a child leading to know the cultures and social activites in the society.
Whereas some agree with shorter holidays as some parents do not have a particular time to look after their kids during summer. In case, of parents working in medical with nuclear family are not able to spend time with kids. Such kids are made to stay in daycare with no proper parenting, in these situation parents get troubled to pick their kids after the work leading to time cosuming for their daily routines.
In conculsion, shorter vaction is favorable for busy working parents but this do not favour a child to learn other social activites
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. The writer presents a clear position throughout the essay. Ideas regarding long holidays, such as participating in cultural activities, playing sports, and spending time with grandparents, are introduced and supported with examples. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed, and the explanation of how these activities build character lacks depth. Similarly, the points regarding working parents and daycare are introduced but not fully extended. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, fitting the profile for Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to paragraph information logically, dedicating separate paragraphs to introduction, long holidays, shorter holidays, and conclusion. However, cohesion is frequently faulty or mechanical. For instance, transitional phrases are occasionally awkward or missing, and referencing is not always clear, such as in the sentence 'In case, of parents working in medical with nuclear family are not able to spend time with kids.' Furthermore, paragraphing is somewhat basic, and pronoun referencing creates confusion at times. These cohesive shortcomings place the response at Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday ideas related to family, school, and work. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary and idiomatic concepts, such as 'nuclear family' and 'outdoor sports'. However, there are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, including 'agrue' instead of argue, 'hoildays' instead of holidays, 'activites' instead of activities, 'promot' instead of promote, 'dvelop' instead of develop, 'abilites' instead of abilities, 'cosuming' instead of consuming, and 'conculsion' instead of conclusion. While these do not entirely impede communication, they occur frequently and pull the score down to Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some capacity to construct compound sentences using conjunctions like 'whereas' and 'while'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent errors in verb forms, article usage, and prepositions, such as 'Various countries have different vacation period', 'will all students to do', 'keep them more stronger', and 'this do not favour'. Punctuation is also problematic, including missing apostrophes and run-on structures. Because errors are frequent and occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, the response aligns best with Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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