Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Various countries in the world keep their primary and secondary schools off for summer vacation. The schools remain closed for generally two months or more due to the extreme temperature in the summer season. The importance of this apect is to prevent primary and secondary school children from getting sick during the long summer days. A group of people argues that the facility of air conditioners at primary and secondary schools can keep students safe from health risks posed by extreme temperature during the summers so schools should avoid long period of school holidays.

The increase in temperature makes it difficult for primary and secondary schools to facilitate all students of the school during summer days. Moreover, the primary and secondary school students are generally the most affected individuals from the heat waves as they can get sick more rapidly when exposed to the heat from the sun. Providing long summer holidays keep them away from long exposure of heat waves and they can study while staying at home in summer days for two or more months.

Nevertheless, there are some people who argue that primary and secondary school children should offer short period of holidays in the summer as air conditioners can keep the classrooms cool. They carry a viewpoint that long summer holidays can affect their studies and can also cause them to lose their focus during such a long period of vacations offered by the schools. For instance, most students from primary and secondary schools prefer to enjoy their holidays during the summer period with a diverse range of summer activities such as swimming. Consequently, they tend to lose their focus and discipline for studies and after the summer holidays, they become uninterested in school activities. By keeping a short period of time for summer holidays in summer, students will stay focused in their studies.

In conclusion, primary and secondary schools offer summer holidays in many countries for sixty or more days. The significance of such long period of summer vacations is to keep students safe from the side effects of high temperature and its associated heatlh risks. While some people oppose the idea by claiming that air conditioners have the facility to keep students safe so the longer period of summer vacation should be avoided for primary and secondary school children.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. The student discusses health risks associated with high temperatures for primary and secondary school children as the primary value for long breaks, while noting counter-arguments regarding air conditioning and student focus. However, some ideas are repetitive, particularly the constant reference to 'primary and secondary schools' and 'summer days', which slightly limits full idea development and depth. Overall, the prompt is adequately covered, aligning with the requirements for a Band 6.5 or solid Band 6, leaning towards Band 6.0 due to the repetition and somewhat limited extension of arguments.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing introduction, body, and conclusion. Ideas are generally logically sequenced, moving from the definition and value of long holidays to counter-arguments and finally a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or repetitive. For instance, the transition phrases like 'Nevertheless' and 'In conclusion' are used, but referencing across sentences is occasionally redundant, such as the repeated mention of 'primary and secondary schools'. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion lacks flexibility. This fits the Band 6 descriptor well, where cohesion is sometimes faulty and referencing not always smooth.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'heat waves', 'associated health risks', and 'diverse range of summer activities'. However, there are noticeable lexical inaccuracies and awkward collocations, such as 'keep their primary and secondary schools off', 'value of this apect' (spelling error), and 'children should offer short period of holidays' (passive voice misuse). Word choice errors like 'health risks' spelled as 'healthe risks' or phrasing like 'facility of air conditioners' are somewhat unnatural. These errors do not impede communication, placing the response comfortably within the Band 6 level for Lexical Resource.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional-like ideas effectively (e.g., 'When exposed to the heat from the sun' and 'By keeping a short period of time...'). However, there are several grammatical errors and awkward structures throughout the text, such as 'children should offer short period' instead of 'be offered', and minor preposition errors like 'staying at home in summer days' instead of 'on summer days'. Punctuation is generally acceptable, but grammatical control fluctuates, leading to frequent minor errors that prevent the score from reaching a Band 7. The majority of sentences contain minor structural imperfections, justifying a Band 6.

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

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