Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

In my opinion long school holidays have significant benefits in students lives. It could be an escape to students from the stress of continuous engagements of school activities and also facilitate to explore beyond academic performance.

Mostly the holidays are given once they are done with term examinations or assignments. After spending reasonable times for studies in order to getting ready for the examinations. They deserve a holidays to be chill and spent their time in an enjoyable experience.

For instance, Sri Lanka is popular for its number of holidays. People can get approximately 160 days as holiday per year and the school holidays are given separately like one month after the term examinations and each semester.

In the holidays students used to visit neighbours and favorite destinations. Even though holidays have potential advantages its crucial to determine whether the student spend their holidays in an appropriate way that could enhance their personality and knowledge. I think most students spend their holidays just to the entertainment rather than spend on a Research or exploration of new interventions.

In contrast, every students deserve holidays to enjoy their lives spontaneously instead of sticking to schedule and visit their place of interest. So they can feel better mentally. But, the length of the holidays should be considered. Parents reported that the way children behave is weird during holidays. Their day-to-day life is entirely changed including sleeping patterns, eating times, and doing homework. It's being crucial for parents to keep children engage to studies. Finally shorter school holidays could have positive values over longer periods of holidays.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the main parts of the prompt by discussing both the value of long holidays and the arguments in favour of shorter ones, but the treatment remains limited and under-developed. Your position is hinted at throughout the text, such as noting that shorter holidays could have positive values, but it lacks clear overall consistency. Some ideas, like the example of Sri Lanka or how children behave during breaks, are introduced but not fully explained or extended with strong supporting details. To reach a higher level, you should ensure all parts of the prompt are explored with fully developed, extended explanations and a clear, well-maintained position from introduction to conclusion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some organisation in your writing, with discernible paragraphs tackling different aspects of the topic, but the overall progression lacks clarity and logical flow. While you attempt to use transitional phrases, cohesive devices are sometimes inadequate, mechanical, or repetitive, making it occasionally difficult to follow the transition between ideas. For instance, moving from the benefits of holidays directly into the Sri Lankan example and then to parental concerns feels disjointed rather than smoothly linked. To improve, focus on strengthening logical connections between sentences and paragraphs using a wider and more natural range of cohesive markers to guide the reader seamlessly through your argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, providing enough words to convey basic ideas, but the range remains limited. You attempt some less common vocabulary, such as 'interventions', 'spontaneously', and 'engagement', but these are occasionally used with inaccurate word choice or awkward collocations. For example, 'spend their holidays just to the entertainment' and 'facilitate to explore' contain noticeable lexical errors that reveal a restricted command of word patterns. To achieve a higher score, you need to expand your range of vocabulary and use less common lexical items with greater precision, ensuring correct word forms and natural collocations suited to an academic context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The text demonstrates a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple forms alongside attempts at complex sentences that frequently contain errors. There are frequent grammatical mistakes relating to verb forms, prepositions, articles, and agreement, such as 'an escape to students', 'getting ready', 'they deserve a holidays to be chill', and 'every students deserve'. These frequent errors can cause some difficulty for the reader and occasionally obscure your meaning. To lift this criterion, you should incorporate a wider variety of complex structures while improving your control over basic grammar, punctuation, and syntactical patterns to ensure error-free sentences.

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