Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-26

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)

Many people have conflicting opinions about the summer holidays schedule practiced in the primary and secondary schools. In this task, I'll be explaining the value of the long school holidays, how it plays an important role and why it is crucial for the students.

There are numerous countries all around the globe who practice a summer vacation of two months or more in one year. This practice is pretty common amoung private and public schools since a long era. There are several advantages of two months holidays to student. First and foremost is it gives students a period of time to enjoy their freedom and their days of childhood. As this time of childhood is pretty precious and it's not something one experiences twice.

Another primary reason of two month school holidays is the schooling schedule, most schools follow a 10 month session approach for academics which covers both summer and winter term. The remaining two months are being accomodated in terms of vacation period so students can spend time with their families and make the most of their childhood.

These holidays also plays a significant role in the development of freedom sense in the students. It provide them with a space of creativity, and allows them to discover and invest time in their hobbies. As pursuing hobbies is a crucial part of development of a healthy, joyful and motivated lifestyle.

Although, there are few arguments in favour of shorter holidays which supports the idea of giving less vacations of students. Many argues that rather than giving long vacations to students, students should be offered new subjects/ courses, trainings or skills that will help them in their future.

Keeping this in mind, few schools offers summer camps. These summer camps offers creative subjects, additionally in-door and out-door games are also offered in the summer camps to help the children to unlock their maxmum potential and interests.

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 favor of shorter ones. The writer presents a clear position throughout the essay. However, some ideas are repetitive and under-developed, particularly when discussing childhood freedom and the academic schedule. Phrases like 'First and foremost is it gives students a period of time to enjoy their freedom' lack deep extension with specific examples. While the main aspects of the task are covered, the development tends to rely on general statements rather than fully elaborated arguments or concrete examples. This performance aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors, as all parts are addressed, but certain points remain somewhat repetitive and lack full elaboration.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and body paragraphs that address distinct ideas. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the response. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'Although, there are few arguments in favour of shorter holidays' is grammatically awkward and weak as a transitional device. Referencing can also be imprecise, as seen in repetitive sentence openings and some misused cohesive links. While the logical flow is generally maintained, the mechanical nature of the transitions and occasional referencing issues prevent the essay from achieving a higher band. Overall, the organizational structure satisfies the requirements for a Band 6 score.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'crucial', 'development', and 'signficant role'. However, there are noticeable word-choice, spelling, and collocation errors. For example, 'amoung' is misspelled, 'long era' is an unnatural collocation, and 'two month school holidays' contains grammatical errors in the compound modifier. Furthermore, phrases like 'freedom sense' and 'giving less vacations of students' reveal limitations in lexical control. While communication is not impeded and the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main points, these persistent inaccuracies cap the lexical score at a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues, such as 'These holidays also plays' and 'These summer camps offers', as well as punctuation and preposition errors like 'in terms of vacation period' and 'giving less vacations of students'. Additionally, sentence fragments and awkward phrasings appear, such as 'The remaining two months are being accomodated in terms of vacation period'. These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, though they do not completely obscure the meaning, placing this performance firmly in the Band 5.5 category.

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