Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

The summer vacations holds a great significance in the annual curriculum of primary and secondary schools globally. The summer holidays are accounted almost in every country and is seen as a medium of refreshness among the students. Student tends to enjoy these summer vacations once in a year, In pakistan summer vacations usually ends up for 3 months.

Summer holidays are essential part of the study culture, mainly students are able to enjoy their holidays after appearing in the final examination and after the vacations they are promoted to the next grade, So it is important for students to have a break from studies so that they can start again with full potential.Long holidays are often seen as a disgrace by many parents but in my opinion a human, especially children are not designed to work every single day, they needs breaks inorder to be more productive and creative. Students after holidays are seen to be less creative because there is no proper schedule involved, but a study was conducted in this case and the results showed that the productivity in children after the break can decline but once they get use to it again the productivity level sky rockets.

Some people argue that the holidays should be less because more holidays can make some students stubborn and lazy by not following a proper routine, some reports also have been published reporting some students lost interest going to school completely after 3 months of vacation, Vacations should be properly fixed so that a student can enjoy his vacations by not forgetting the actual career path, the government can introduce hybrid vacations in which vacations are customized in accordance with the intellect level of the individual.

In conclusion, I agree that summer holidays is a right of every student, but schools should provide adiquate homework so that the students cannot loose their focus from the education.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions and maintain a clear overall view: long breaks allow children to rest and regain motivation, while shorter holidays may help preserve routine and interest in school. The Pakistan example gives the discussion a relevant personal context. However, the value of long holidays is explained more fully than the case for shorter ones, which is mainly linked to laziness and losing interest. The suggestion of “hybrid vacations” is interesting but unclear because you do not explain how they would work or how they relate to shorter breaks. The claim about a study and its results also needs a source or a more specific example. Develop these points with clearer reasoning and support.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate discussion of the two positions, and a conclusion. This helps the reader follow the main argument. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to track: the point that children need rest shifts to claims about reduced creativity and then to an unspecified study. Several sentences are joined with commas or “So,” “but,” and “and,” making relationships between ideas less clear. Referencing is also occasionally vague, as in “the results” and “some reports,” without identifying what they refer to. Use clearer topic sentences, divide long sentences, and make each paragraph develop one main point in a logical sequence.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You attempt a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “annual curriculum,” “productivity,” “creative,” and “routine,” and the main meaning is generally understandable. There are, however, noticeable problems with word choice, collocation, word forms, and spelling that make some phrases unnatural or imprecise. For example, “medium of refreshness” does not express the intended idea naturally, while “a disgrace” seems unsuitable for describing parents’ views of long holidays. “Sky rockets” is informal in this context, and “intellect level” is unclear. Spelling errors such as “adiquate” and “loose” also reduce accuracy. Aim for natural academic collocations and check spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including clauses with “because,” “so that,” and “in which.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in agreement, articles, verb forms, and sentence boundaries occur across the response. For example, “The summer vacations holds” has a plural subject with a singular verb, and “Student tends” needs a plural form or an article. In “they needs breaks,” the verb does not agree with its subject. Several long sentences are joined with commas, such as the sentence beginning “Some people argue,” which makes the structure hard to follow. Practise checking subject–verb agreement and breaking run-on sentences into shorter, correctly punctuated units.

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