Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-03

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 5.5)

Schools holidays play an important part in the welbeing fro children's mindsets that they are not bounded by the studies. In many parts of the world , Schools of primary and secondary education closes for the period of 2-3 months in the bleak mid-summer. In this regard , the long school holidays play and important role in learning the new activities or skills in that time. While there are more school of thoughts that advocates the minimum school holidays because long holidays leads to the lack of interest the and harms the discipline and punctuality of students.

To explain the importance of maximum school holidays , students can learn something new in those vacations by going to technical institutes. Moreover, they can enjoy and spend time with their families and can go the tourists places. For instance , one of my neighbors child used to go to the northern areas of pakistan Murree and Kashmir etc, to spend the quality time with his cousins and family members. He enjoys and always gets some new exposure.

In contrast with , those who favour's the shorter vacations for summers think that long holidays can make the students lazier towards the studies and as well as students dont even try to spend a piece of time for educational purposes and this thing will lead to lack of interest in studies.

Moreover, it also harms the discipline of the students because they were at home for a long period of time and they will aslo lose their punctuality , they do not eat on time , it also disturbs their sleeping and waking hours. For example , my younger brother always lose his punctuality whenever the summer vacations come , last year i remebered that he was used to wake up at 12pm.

To conclude, summer vacations played an imported role in learning the extra skills in student life while majority thinks that long vacations have significantly harmfull impact on the discipline and punctuality of the childrens.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the value of long school holidays and the arguments for shorter ones, such as skill acquisition versus disrupted discipline. However, the ideas remain somewhat limited and under-developed. While the writer introduces relevant points like traveling to northern areas or losing a daily routine, these explanations are supported by basic personal anecdotes rather than fully extended arguments. The position is generally discernible, but the overall treatment of both aspects of the task lacks the depth and fully elaborated support required for higher bands. To improve, the writer should ensure that every main idea is thoroughly expanded with broader reasoning and well-developed implications rather than brief, simple examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays some overall organization, with clear paragraphing that separates the introduction, the two body paragraphs discussing opposing views, and the conclusion. However, there is no clear overall progression across the text, and the logical flow is occasionally hindered by faulty or mechanical cohesive devices. For instance, transitional phrases like 'In contrast with' and 'Moreover' are sometimes used inaccurately or awkwardly, disrupting the connection between ideas. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as pronoun shifts that muddy who is being referred to. To achieve a higher level, the writer needs to ensure smoother transitions between sentences and paragraphs, employ cohesive devices more naturally, and build a more progressive, tightly linked argument throughout the essay.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic message about school holidays. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'bleak mid-summer' and 'technical institutes', but these are often accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and form, such as 'welbeing fro children's mindsets' and 'tourists places'. Additionally, there are persistent spelling mistakes, including 'welbeing', 'remebered', 'imported', and 'harmfull'. These lexical inaccuracies and word-choice slips occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. To progress, the student should expand their range of functional academic vocabulary, pay closer attention to natural collocations, and carefully check spelling and word forms before finalizing their writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer employs a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside attempts at complex structures that are frequently faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors in verb forms, prepositions, articles, and agreement, such as 'Schools of primary and secondary education closes', 'play and important role', 'long holidays leads', and 'students were at home'. Punctuation errors, such as unnecessary spaces before commas, also detract from the overall control. These frequent errors can cause difficulty and distraction for the reader. To move up, the student needs to demonstrate a greater variety of complex sentence patterns with higher accuracy, paying particular attention to subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, and correct article usage.

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