Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · 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 4.5)

A wide range of countries close their primary and secondary schools for the students in the summer more than two months. The issue of school holidays as become increasingly common in recent years. In contemporary society, school holidays is part of a heated debate. This essay will first examine value of long school holidays and will then argue that shorter school holidays.

In conclusion, long-term holidays helps the students to get refresh and re-ready for the curriculum activities while short-term holidays makes the students frustrating by academic tasks. Overall, long school holidays are very beneficial for students mantel and physical health because by refreshing students can participate more actively in academic activities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

First, it must be noted that this response fails to meet the minimum length requirement of 250 words, as it contains only 112 words. Because of this severe length limitation, the response addresses the task only minimally and tangentially. The writing attempts to cover both parts of the prompt regarding the value of long holidays and arguments for shorter ones, but the ideas are extremely limited and under-developed. The conclusion is placed incorrectly at the start of the second paragraph rather than at the end, and the essay lacks a full development of arguments, touching on mental and physical health very briefly without providing supporting examples or extended explanations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The response shows some basic organisation with an introductory paragraph, but information and ideas are not arranged coherently overall. There is a distinct lack of clear progression, and the placement of the concluding summary at the beginning of the second paragraph disrupts the logical flow of the text. Cohesive devices are basic and sometimes inaccurate, such as using 'In conclusion' at the start of the final paragraph when no body paragraphs were actually developed in between. Paragraphing is unusual and used insufficiently and inappropriately for an essay format.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for the task. There are noticeable lexical errors that stem from incorrect word choices and word forms, such as writing 'has become' instead of 'as become', 'get refresh' instead of 'refreshed', and 'making the students frustrating' instead of 'frustrated'. Other awkward phrasings include 'students mantel and physical health', where 'mantel' is a spelling error for 'mental'. These vocabulary errors and limited range mean the language is basic, though meaning is still just about retrievable for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a very limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on basic patterns with frequent errors. Attempts at more complex structures or expressing ideas are often faulty, such as 'close their primary and secondary schools for the students in the summer more than two months', which lacks correct prepositional phrases. There are frequent errors in verb forms, articles, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'school holidays is part of a heated debate' and 'long-term holidays helps'. These frequent grammatical errors cause some difficulty for the reader.

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

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