Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-15

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 has been observed that holidays play crucial role in student's lives. Some people think that summer holidays should be shorter for primary and secondary schools. While othes say that these should be longer. I find the given notion logically sound and I partly agree with both statements. I will highlight these points in the subsequent paragraph, which will lead to logical conclusion.

On the one hand, students and teachers can feel more relaxing during long summer break. To elaborate, if they have long summer break then they will have more time to spend with their family members. Along with this, students can learn some skills such as cooking, painting, dancing during the long summer break. Some families visit to their relative and make plan for tour visit any hillstation or abroad. For instance, a survey conducted by the education department in 2023 revealed that 70% parents traveling in summer holidays because of their kids have break from school.

On the other hand, shorter holidays have also few benefits, students have not need to remind study because they have short break. Moreover, teachers also do less hardwork. To explain it, if students have short summer break they remember their lesson and their parents have not that much long break from work, they find some daycare in summerbreak for their kids. If they have short break from schools then they have not need to spend money for daycare.

To conclude the discussion, it can be said despite the fact that longer summer break is more beneficial for studends and teacher. Howeve, some summer classes also available in the school so that parents who have work they join those classes for their kids

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions and give a partly balanced position, with relevant points about family time, learning skills, and the practical effects of shorter breaks. However, the discussion is only partially developed: the value of long holidays is illustrated with activities and a survey, but the benefits of shorter holidays are less clearly explained. For example, “students have not need to remind study” appears to mean that shorter breaks help students retain what they have learned, but this point needs clearer reasoning and support. The conclusion also introduces summer classes without explaining how they relate to your overall view. To strengthen the response, state your position more precisely and develop each main argument with a clear explanation or a specific example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting contrasting views, and a conclusion. “On the one hand” and “On the other hand” help signal the change in perspective, and the ideas generally remain grouped by topic. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow, particularly where several benefits are listed without clear links. The sentence about parents needing daycare is also hard to connect to the claim that shorter holidays save money. Some linking phrases, such as “To elaborate” and “To explain it,” feel mechanical, while the conclusion does not clearly synthesise the two sides. Use clearer cause-and-effect links and make each paragraph build one central argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “summer break,” “family members,” “skills,” “daycare,” and “summer classes.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “education department” and “survey conducted.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are noticeably inaccurate, sometimes making the meaning unclear. Examples include “more relaxing” for people, “make plan for tour visit,” and “teachers also do less hardwork.” Spelling and word-form errors such as “oth es,” “studends,” and “Howeve” also reduce accuracy. Build a more precise range of phrases for discussing learning, family arrangements, and school schedules, and check collocations and spelling during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional clauses such as “if they have long summer break” and a contrastive opening with “While.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in sentence structure, verb forms, agreement, and articles occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to understand. For example, “students have not need to remind study” and “their parents have not that much long break from work” are not grammatically clear. The final sentence also lacks a clear structure linking the parents’ work commitments to the classes. Practise forming accurate conditional sentences and checking subject–verb agreement, articles, and verb patterns. Shorter, well-controlled sentences would help make your reasoning clearer.

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