Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-12

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)

It's often noticed that, schools were closed for more than two month after a complication of an academic year at various places around world. Where many believe that giving such a long break for students provide a relief from studies and allow them to learn new things during holidays.

To begin with, sometime school exceeds the length of summer holidays which goes upto more than two months. As students are still in their adult age they often demand longer break, as they were wrapped up with their finals exams. This allows individual to relax, for instance, in country like India majority of parents took their child on long vacations, this allows them to explore new area and learn somethings new. Another example is, setting up small business, in the USA children often setup the lemonade business during holidays, which improve there economics skills.

On the other hand, individual often not satisfied with the shorter break. Many believe that, this cause students to loose the focus from the studies leads to score poor grades in exams. For example, one research made on few school students, it stated students are more likely to get distracted after the short term breaks, furthermore, studies reported few of candidate lost their interest from academics, however they were performing well in other area such as sport and music classes.

In conclusion, longer holidays benefit the individual in many ways, such as learning new things and exploring new area, although shorter holidays creates uncertainty. Despite this, longer school holidays are essential for students.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both questions and gives a clear overall preference for longer holidays, supported by examples such as family trips in India and children’s lemonade businesses in the USA. These examples make the benefits of a long break relevant, but the explanation of the value of holidays is not consistently developed. The discussion of shorter holidays is less convincing: it mainly claims that short breaks reduce focus and interest, without explaining why shorter holidays might be beneficial or presenting the arguments in their favour. The conclusion also calls shorter holidays a source of “uncertainty,” which is unclear. To strengthen the response, explain specific advantages of shorter breaks, such as maintaining learning routines, and develop each main point with a clear cause-and-effect explanation.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting contrasting views, and a conclusion. Paragraphing helps the reader identify the main sections, and signposts such as “To begin with” and “On the other hand” show an attempt to organise the discussion. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the second body paragraph moves from dissatisfaction with short breaks to distraction and then to students’ performance in sport and music, without making the relationship between these points explicit. Linking phrases are also sometimes mechanical or inaccurately used, and references such as “this” do not always clearly identify the idea being discussed. Use fewer, more precise transitions and connect each example directly to the paragraph’s main claim.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas, and the response attempts topic-related expressions such as “final exams,” “long vacations,” “lemonade business,” and “academics.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors make parts less natural or occasionally unclear. For example, “wrapped up with their finals exams” and “lost their interest from academics” do not express the intended ideas idiomatically, while “there economics skills” contains a spelling error that affects meaning. Repetition of general terms such as “students,” “long holidays,” and “learn new things” also limits precision. Build a bank of accurate phrases for discussing learning, rest, and school routines, and check spelling and word forms during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts both simple and more complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “as,” “which,” and “although.” However, complex structures are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. For instance, “Where many believe that giving such a long break for students provide a relief” is an incomplete construction with subject–verb and article problems. Other examples include “parents took their child” and “this cause students,” where tense, number, or agreement is not controlled. Commas also interrupt sentences in places, such as after “noticed that.” Practise building complete sentences around one main clause, then check subject–verb agreement, articles, plurals, and verb tense before adding subordinate clauses.

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