Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-09

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 different countries, primary and secondry educational institutes remains close two or more months in summer vaccations. Long school holidays can provide opportunity to children to excel also in extracuricular activities. While, vacations of the few days make them close to their cultural values.

Longer days off of two or more months are very important for the children to grow also in the activities other than the studies. These are very important for the physical and mental health growth of the cildren of elementry and high school. They can take part in different competitions and their act of participation will boost their confidence. For instance, a survey in an Italian institute showed that, children who got involved in plays and brain activities they are proved to be good in studies, as they have better focus.

And few days holidays are useful to give cultural importance from a very small age. Children get to know about national holidays of their country and they connect to history through these days. Some celebrations days, they spend with their family and they feel connected with culture and can also get sense of togetherness. For example, christmass is the day when whole family join together to celebrate this special day, many children learn about the history, value and importance of family together.

In conclusion, In Primary and secondar educational places around the world in many countries, they close in the hot weather. This give a good opportunity to children to show better involvement also in summer activities other than studies and can improve mental and physical health. And few days off will give them sense of awareness to their cultural values.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions: the first body paragraph explains how longer breaks allow children to pursue activities beyond study and support their wellbeing, while the second gives reasons shorter breaks may strengthen cultural and family connections. The examples of competitions and Christmas celebrations make the discussion relevant. However, the value of long holidays is developed more fully than the case for shorter holidays, and the latter is not clearly compared with the disadvantages or benefits of a long summer break. Some claims, such as the survey example, are asserted rather than explained. The conclusion restates the main points but does not sharpen your overall view. Develop each side to a similar depth and explain more explicitly why shorter breaks are preferable in the relevant respects.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two sides, and a conclusion. This makes the main line of discussion easy to follow. You also use signposting such as “For instance” and “For example” to introduce supporting details. However, the opening contrast beginning “While” is not smoothly connected to the preceding sentence, and the transition “And few days holidays” is awkward. Some ideas within paragraphs are joined mechanically with “and,” while references such as “these days” and “they” are not always precise. The conclusion repeats earlier points rather than bringing them together. Use clearer links between claims and examples, and make each paragraph’s progression more deliberate.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “extracurricular activities,” “competitions,” “confidence,” “cultural values,” and “togetherness.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, but the range and control are limited, with noticeable spelling and word-choice problems that sometimes make the reader pause. Examples include “secondry,” “vaccations,” “cildren,” and “christmass”; “educational institutes” and “act of participation” are also unnatural in context. Repetition of “important,” “children,” and “days” limits precision. Build a bank of accurate collocations for education and holidays, and check spelling carefully. More natural phrasing would make your ideas clearer without requiring unnecessarily advanced vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, including the explanation that children can join activities and gain confidence, and the example introduced with “For instance.” The main meaning is generally recoverable, but some grammatical errors remain and occasionally make relationships between ideas unclear. For example, “institutes remains close” has a subject–verb agreement problem and an incomplete verb construction; “children who got involved … they are proved” has an unclear clause structure and inconsistent tense. The opening “While” clause is also left without a complete grammatical connection. Practise forming complete complex sentences, checking agreement and verb forms, and using punctuation to separate clauses. This will improve accuracy while preserving your attempts at varied structures.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.