Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-14

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 5.0)

In many countries, schools close for two months or more in the summer holidays. Some peopl believe that long school holidays are benfical to learn practical skills, while others argue that shorter holidays help puiple to connect with studies. In this essay, i will discuss both viewpoints and will give my opinion accordingly.

To begin with, expand holidays play an indispensable role in personal and professional growth of individuals. It allow students to travel from different places and explore diferent tradition and culture by local communities, allowing them to learn decision making, critical and logical thinking abilites. As a result, it helps to build confidence and contributes to improve their well-being. For example, When young chidern travel during the vocation they meet new people nad release their strees, which help them to become more foused and concentrate on their work.

On the other hand, opponent argue that shot holidays play an essential role in connecting student with their studies. Becasue they allow them to aviod forget the lesson due to a short break and help to maintain their knowlegde. For instance, a survey is conducted by various schools. a large proportion of students report the same result who spent short holidays have more preseves and understand the lesson quickly as compare to the long vocation spenders.

In conclusion, Although holidays are important for the stud

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response4.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You address both questions by presenting benefits of longer holidays—travel, cultural exposure, confidence and well-being—and an argument for shorter breaks, namely retaining knowledge. However, the response is incomplete: the conclusion stops at “Although holidays are important for the stud,” so your overall position is not stated. The supporting points are also brief and the example about a survey is vague and difficult to verify; explain what students retain and how this affects learning. The response contains 214 words, below the required 250, which limits the development of your ideas. To improve, complete the conclusion, make your view explicit, and extend each main point with a clear explanation or relevant example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, one paragraph for each viewpoint, and an attempted conclusion. Transitions such as “To begin with,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” help signal the stages of the discussion. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear. The first body paragraph moves from travel to decision-making and then well-being without fully explaining the links, while the survey example in the second paragraph is hard to follow. The sentence beginning “Because they allow them…” is also left as a fragment. Use clearer topic sentences, connect each example directly to its main point, and ensure the conclusion forms a complete final paragraph.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You attempt some topic-relevant vocabulary, including “critical and logical thinking,” “well-being,” “maintain their knowledge,” and “connect with their studies.” These choices show an effort to discuss learning and personal development, but spelling and word-choice errors are frequent enough to distract the reader: examples include “benfical,” “diferent,” “puiple,” and “preseves.” Some phrases are also unnatural or unclear, such as “expand holidays,” “release their stress,” and “long vocation spenders.” Choose accurate collocations and check spelling carefully. For example, “long summer break” is more natural than “expand holidays,” and “retain what they have learned” expresses the point more clearly than “avoid forget the lesson.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You use both simple and more complex forms, including a contrast structure with “Although” and a relative clause in “students who spent short holidays.” However, attempts at longer sentences often contain errors that make relationships between ideas difficult to follow. For example, “It allow students” has subject–verb disagreement, and “Because they allow them to avoid forget the lesson” is not a complete sentence and has an incorrect verb pattern. The opening also shifts into “i” without capitalisation, and the final sentence is unfinished. Practise complete sentence construction, agreement, and verb patterns such as “avoid forgetting.” Proofread punctuation and capitalisation, and finish every sentence before submitting.

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