Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-05

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)

In many countries, primary and secondary schools shut down for two months or more in the summer vacations. Although, longer holidays have many advantages, shorter holidays also provides an argument beneficial for academic continuation.

On the one hand, holidays stretched to a long period of time help students to explore fields outside of acadamecis such as by travelling, indulging in a hobby or just go out with their friends. For instance, a child might visit historical monuments, learn a new skill like coding or dancing thus, the child would be performing better in school by participating in arts as well as academics boasting their morale. Consequently, it will help them exploring a newer version of themselves that broadens their horizons and not limiting them to just studies

Additionaly, longer holidays will help children get a break from acadameics and just enjoy themselves at their homes stress free. They will spend more time with their families and friends, also letting them experience how essential work-life balance is in a person's life span. For example, youngsters just starting their vacation would love to sleep and communicate with their family members more often making them understand family relations are just as crutial as the ones they have with their friends in school. As a result, children will understand the way for time management and the people and work that need to be prioritised before others.

On the other hand, shorter holidays also have a positive effect. They help children to not forget about the concepts and lessons that were taught just before holidays that helps them to reconnect to newer topics that the teacher would teach them after the vacations. Such a case happened with children of a school that when they started attending again after the break, they had not forgotten about the previous lessons and their instructor could start with the next ones skipping with revisions. Therefore, saving a lot of time and covering the syllabus faster than other schools with longer breaks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task, examining both the value of long school holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones, meeting the requirements of the prompt appropriately. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the first body paragraph explores the benefits of pursuing hobbies and travelling with relevant examples like learning coding or visiting historical monuments, whereas the second body paragraph on family time and work-life balance tends to repeat similar points about spending time with relatives and relies on slightly general assertions. To move higher, the arguments could be extended with more distinct, fully articulated supporting points rather than overlapping concepts.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement and demonstrates clear logical progression throughout, showing elements of both Band 6 and the higher level. Information and ideas are logically sequenced with clear transitions, such as 'On the one hand' and 'On the other hand'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct arguments. Cohesion within and between sentences is generally managed well, though referencing and cohesive devices occasionally feel somewhat mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on 'This' or 'As a result'. To fully secure the higher band, the use of cohesive devices could be made more flexible and subtle, ensuring smoother transitions between the various points without relying on formulaic connectors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'work-life balance', 'historical monuments', and 'broadens their horizons'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that prevent a higher score, such as 'acadamecis', 'acadameics', 'boasting' instead of 'boosting', and 'crutial' instead of 'crucial'. Furthermore, awkward collocations like 'holidays stretched to a long period of time' or 'skipping with revisions' appear. These lexical slips and spelling inaccuracies do not seriously impede communication, placing the vocabulary firmly in the category of adequate but showing noticeable limitations in precision and control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt at varied syntactic structures such as conditional and participial clauses ('Although, longer holidays have many advantages...', '...making them understand family relations...'). There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, including incorrect comma usage, awkward phrasing like 'also provides an argument beneficial', and minor preposition or article slips. Nevertheless, these errors rarely impede communication, and many simple sentences remain accurate. To reach the next level, the student needs to produce a higher frequency of error-free complex sentences and exercise tighter control over punctuation and subject-verb agreement.

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

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