Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-28

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)

Long summer vacations are a common feature of school systems in many countries, where students gets mostly two months or more time of vacation from formal education. Though long vacations can provide few important benefits, shorter vacations may be more beneficial in terms of maintaining academic progress and a continuous study routine.

One of the major benefit of long holidays is that they give children an opportunity to rest and recover after a long academic year. Students can spend more time with their families, participate in sports and hobbies or travel. These activities can contribute to their social and personal development, which cannot be achieved in the classroom. Furthermore, a long break can help teachers to prepare lessons, personal development and they can return to school with fresh energy. And lastly, for families, holiday period can also provide an opportunity to arrange trips that would be impossible during shorter breaks throughout the year.

On the other part, there are strong arguments for reducing the length of school holidays. On of the most reason is that students may forget the subjects and fundamentals of the topics of what they have learned during a last school tenure and this will be important to continue with further syllabus. This can be seen mostly in the younger age students. Teachers may also need to spend the first few weeks of a new academic year to review previous material rather than introducing new subjects. Shorter holidays could reduce this problem by allowing students to rest regularly while keeping them engaged with their studies.

To conclude, long school holidays allow children to relax, spend more quality time with their families and to develop other skills. Shorter and more distributed breaks can help to maintain academic continuity and reduce practical difficulties for parents and teachers. Therefore, both approaches have benefits, depending on the priorities of the education system.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones. The writer presents a clear position throughout the essay. The ideas are generally relevant and extended, such as mentioning rest, family time, and skill development for the first part, and academic retention for the second. However, some arguments lack deeper support or become slightly repetitive. For example, the mention of teachers' personal development is brief and under-developed. Nevertheless, the requirements of the task are well-met, placing the essay comfortably at Band 6.5 to 7.0. Given the clear coverage of both task questions, it aligns best with the Band 7 descriptor.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay is logically organised with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing each prompt question, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'One of the major benefit', 'Furthermore', and 'On the other part'. However, there are some minor mechanical or awkward uses of cohesion, such as 'On the other part' instead of 'On the other hand' and 'On of the most reason'. Paragraphing is used appropriately, with each main idea grouped into its own paragraph, ensuring clear overall progression throughout the text. This performance demonstrates the characteristics of Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'academic continuity', 'social and personal development', and 'fundamentals'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the response. For instance, the student writes 'students gets mostly two months' (grammatical error), 'One of the major benefit' (singular/plural mismatch), 'On of the most reason' (incorrect idiom), and 'topics of what they have learned'. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the meaning clearly, which corresponds to a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over grammar. There are instances of complex structures, such as relative clauses ('trips that would be impossible during shorter breaks') and subordinate clauses ('Though long vacations can provide few important benefits...'). However, frequent grammatical errors are present, including subject-verb agreement issues ('students gets'), article misuse ('the younger age students'), and awkward phrasing ('to prepare lessons, personal development and they can return'). These errors occasionally interrupt the flow, though they rarely impede overall communication, placing this response at Band 6.0.

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