Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-25

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)

Long summer holidays are part of the primary and secondary school across many countries globally which can have various effects on students study life.

To begin with, summer holidays holds great value as this provides the anual academic break for students after the regulaer hectic school routines. Breaks are very much necessary for students to keep up with their peronal life and to develope peronal skills like identifying their hobbies, learning any new language or just spending some quality time with family. Mostly students go on vacation to different places and countries which increase the geographical kniwledge of students while providing a time to relax and reconnect with their very own self. Schools also provides the summer vacation sallybus to make sure students do not loose their interest in studies. Students who take breaks and spends time in other activities tends to perform much better compared to those who just lives in a controlled academic environment.

On the flip side, there could be some serious impacts on students academic peronalities which might inclides the loose of interest in studies due to 2 months extensive break and at times students also finds it difficult to adopt back their school life which severally impacts the motivation and moral of studentds. Furthermore, some students can also loose their tempo and flow of study as every kid has different study mind and capabilities. Whereas a shorter break of about 2 to 3 weeks sounds much more relaible and efficient.

I firmly believe that schools should introduce shorter summer breaks to make sure this will not impact their studies and mindset while providing a good quality break time for their own self upbringing.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter breaks. A clear personal position is presented in the final paragraph. Ideas are generally relevant, such as the benefits of breaks for personal development and family time, alongside drawbacks like learning loss and difficulty readjusting. However, some arguments remain somewhat under-developed and rely on generalisations without specific examples, which prevents the response from reaching higher bands. For instance, the discussion around students losing interest in studies is mentioned but not fully explored with a concrete example. Overall, all parts of the task are covered adequately, aligning with a Band 6.0 performance.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing that separates the introduction, the value of holidays, arguments for shorter holidays, and the conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty and mechanical. Transitional phrases like 'To begin with' and 'On the flip side' are used, but referencing and linking within paragraphs can be clunky. For example, the sentence 'Mostly students go on vacation to different places and countries which increase the geographical kniwledge of students while providing a time to relax...' features run-on tendencies and loose referencing. Paragraph transitions could be smoother, and logical progression is occasionally hindered by repetitive phrasing, placing this response firmly at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'hectic school routines', 'geographical knowledge', and 'upbringing'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'anual' instead of annual, 'regulaer' instead of regular, 'peronal' instead of personal, 'develope' instead of develop, 'sallybus' instead of syllabus, 'loose' instead of lose, 'peronalities' instead of personalities, 'inclides' instead of includes, 'severally' instead of severely, and 'moral' instead of morale. While these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the lexical score from rising above Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some capability to construct multi-clause sentences. However, grammatical accuracy is noticeably weak, featuring frequent errors such as subject-verb agreement issues ('summer holidays holds', 'Schools also provides', 'students also finds', 'studentds'), incorrect singular/plural usage ('studies' versus 'study life'), and awkward phrasing ('every kid has different study mind and capabilities'). Punctuation and word forms are also inconsistently handled. These errors occasionally cause strain for the reader, matching the profile of a Band 5.0 for grammatical range and accuracy.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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