Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-19

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 is often argued that primary and secondary institutes close for long time for two months in the name of summer holidays. Whereas, it also discuss that what is the essential benefits of the shorter holidays.From my perspective, the longest holidays are crucial because children wants break to feel free from the busy academic schedual also shorter holidays have many benefits that they never forget what they learn otherwise, this will effect on their academic learning.

On the one hand, Holidays are vital for the learners because it is consider as leaisure time. The main reason is that, in this time physical activities improve such as, they go to park on dailybasis for different activities.In addition, Physical activities make the children energetic and more changes in their personalities when they meet to the new people. Furthermore, Children in holidays go to their loved ones houses to meet them and theses meet up will strong impact on their personalities, they learn about their cultures and traditions and values of relationship at the same time.

On the other hand, Shoter school holidays make childrem more active because when they came from long holidays they forgot all the things they learns before. For instance, tutors check their daily work task and they also do many academic activities that assit them alot and they never get bore from their daily schedual. The activities is crucial due to they make children delight and interest in these things.

Taking everything into account, long holidays are impotant because in this time childrens learn about the relationships and the value of the socity also, shorter leisure time will helo them to enhance their skills through different activities that pupils also like.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions and give a clear overall view: long holidays allow children to rest and develop socially, while shorter breaks may help them retain learning. The examples about visiting parks and relatives are relevant, and the point that pupils may forget material after a long break responds directly to the second question. However, several ideas remain general or unclear. For example, “more changes in their personalities” does not explain what changes, and the claim that daily academic activities prevent boredom is not fully supported. Develop each argument with a clearer explanation or a specific example, and make the comparison between the benefits of the two holiday patterns more precise.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two sides, and a conclusion. “On the one hand” and “On the other hand” help signal the change in focus, so the reader can follow the broad organisation. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow, and linking is often mechanical. In the first body paragraph, the move from physical activity to meeting relatives and learning traditions is understandable but not clearly connected to the main claim. Some sentences also run ideas together, while the conclusion repeats earlier points rather than drawing them together. Use clearer topic sentences and explain how each example supports the paragraph’s central idea.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “physical activities,” “academic learning,” “personalities,” and “cultures and traditions.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, but the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate, sometimes making meaning less clear. Examples include “close for long time,” “strong impact,” “daily work task,” and “the value of the society.” Spelling errors such as “schedual,” “leaisure,” and “Shoter” also reduce accuracy. Build a more precise range of phrases for school breaks and learning, and check spelling and natural word combinations when editing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including clauses with “because,” “when,” and “otherwise.” This shows an effort to express reasons and contrast, but complex structures are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to interpret. For example, “it also discuss that what is the essential benefits” has problems with subject–verb agreement and question structure, while “children wants break” has agreement and article errors. There are also issues with verb forms and sentence boundaries, as in “when they came from long holidays they forgot all the things they learns before.” Practise accurate basic sentence patterns first, then build longer sentences with controlled clauses and punctuation.

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.