Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-23

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 of the world, primary and secondary schools remained close for two months or more during the summer holidays.

During the summer holidays, many of the primary and secondary instituitions remained close for more than 60 days because of many authentic reasons. First of all, the main reason is the rising temperature in summers.In alot of countries, the temperature increase to more than 50degree celsius, which is so alarming for tha country. Most of the students of primary and secondary school are below 18 and they cannot bear that much heat in the instituitions. Just due to heat and increased temperature many of the diseases also take place including pneumonia,skin infection and many more.Mainly just due to high degree of hotness, the institutions remained close.Moreover, many institutions complete their syllabus by the end of spring and just to give releif to students and to enjoy the summers schools give vacation to students.

In my opinion, giving summer vacations of two months to students is a good initiative. Beacuse studnets get tired by studying round the year, and to give mental releif to students its a good thing. Many of the institutions also arrange summer camps to keep students connect with study and different physical and academic activities, which is valuable and adoreable for the students.Furthermore, shorter holidays would also be beneficial for students to reduce the academic gap and knowledge retentions because some students lose their concepts. So, to keep in touch with studies shorter holidays might be valuable.

In conclusion, it does not matter that holidays are long or short.The main thing is to give holidays to students to less their burden and stress and to provide entertainment so in future they can easily connect with their studies,

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the value of long holidays such as mental relief and summer camps, as well as arguments for shorter holidays like preventing academic gaps and knowledge loss. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive, particularly in the first body paragraph where the point about hot weather and diseases is restated several times without deep extension. The student takes a clear position, but the support lacks depth and specific examples, keeping it firmly within the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a generally coherent overall arrangement with logical sequencing of ideas, moving from reasons for long holidays to arguments for shorter ones. Paragraphing is attempted, but the first paragraph is excessively repetitive and merges multiple ideas awkwardly. Cohesive devices such as 'First of all', 'Moreover', and 'Furthermore' are used, but referencing is occasionally imprecise and mechanical. The conclusion is abruptly punctuated and lacks a full stop, impacting the structural flow. This performance aligns with the Band 5 to 6 threshold, leaning towards a solid 5.5 due to organizational weaknesses.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but range and precision are limited. The student attempts some less common vocabulary items such as 'authentic reasons', 'knowledge retentions', and 'academic gap', but these are often accompanied by spelling and word-choice errors (e.g., 'instituitions', 'alot', 'releif', 'hotness', 'adoreable'). Some terms are used awkwardly or inaccurately, such as 'high degree of hotness' instead of 'extreme heat'. These errors do not entirely impede communication, placing the response at a Band 5.5 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including tense shifts ('schools remained close'), missing articles ('tha country'), and incorrect prepositions ('connect with study'). Punctuation is also problematic, with missing spaces after commas and periods, and a run-on sentence structure in the final conclusion. While communication is maintained, the high frequency of basic errors prevents the essay from reaching Band 6.

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