Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-02

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 7.0)

In many countries, schools close for two months or even longer during the summer. While long holidays provides students with opportunities to relax and develop outside the classroom, shorter holidays can help them to maintain academic progress and avoid forgetting what they have learned.

There are several benefits of long school holidays. Firstly, students need to enough time to recover from the pressures of studying, examinations and daily school routines. A lengthy break allow to relax mentally and spend quality time with their families. Secondly, summer holidays give children an opportunity to participate in activities which is not be possible during the academic year, such as travelling, playing sports, learning new skills or doing creative hobbies. Moreover, teachers can also use this period to rest and prepare their lessons for the next academic year.

However, there are also some strong arguments in favour of shorter school holidays. The most important concern is that students may forget some knowledge and skills they learned during the previous term, especially in subjects which require regular practice, such as mathematics and languages. As a result, teachers may have to spend a lot of time reviewing old material when school starts again. Shorter breaks could help students to maintain a regular learning routine. In addition, long holidays can be difficult for working parents, because they may have problems in arranging childcare for their children.

In conclusion, long school holidays provide important opportunities for relaxation, family time and personal development. Nevertheless, shorter holidays can help students retain their academic knowledge and also make life easier for working parents. Therefore, schools should have a balanced holiday schedule which gives students enough rest without causing too much difficulty to their education.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones, maintaining a clear position throughout. The ideas are well extended and supported, such as when the student explains the mental recovery benefits for students and teachers, alongside the practical challenges faced by working parents. However, some arguments exhibit a tendency to over-generalise or remain slightly under-developed, particularly regarding specific examples of skill development. To reach a higher band, the student should provide more fully developed, concrete examples to substantiate each main point.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay demonstrates a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Each paragraph has a distinct central topic, moving smoothly from an introduction to the benefits of long holidays, the counter-arguments for shorter breaks, and a balanced conclusion. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well, such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'Moreover', and 'However', showing clear transitions between ideas. To move to the next level, the student could ensure that referencing and cohesive links are integrated even more flexibly and naturally, avoiding a slightly formulaic reliance on transitional adverbs.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and thematic phrases such as 'academic progress', 'regular learning routine', and 'personal development'. There are some word choice and word form errors that hint at a struggle with precision, such as 'long holidays provides' (subject-verb agreement tied to vocabulary choice) and phrasing like 'doing creative hobbies'. Spelling and word choice errors do not impede communication, but they prevent the writing from achieving greater lexical precision. Incorporating more sophisticated collocations and maintaining strict word-form accuracy would lift this criterion.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an ability to construct compound and complex ideas using subordinate clauses like 'While long holidays provides...' and 'especially in subjects which require regular practice'. There are several grammatical errors present, including subject-verb agreement issues ('long holidays provides'), missing prepositions ('need to enough time', 'allow to relax'), and awkward infinitive/gerund patterns ('which is not be possible'). While these errors do not impede overall communication, they represent a recurring pattern of slips that keeps the grammar score at this level. Producing a higher frequency of error-free complex sentences will elevate this score.

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