Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

In many different parts of the world, elementary and high-schools close for several months in the summer time. Regarding the first question, kid can enjoy the outdoor activities along with travelling, while shorter school holidays helps children to focus on their academic study.

There are number of reason good reason for long school holiday. One possible reason is travelling with their family members in summer. This will give a children enough time to visit various places, while this will help them to freshen up their mind from there academic studies. Another reason is a long holiday give student time to learn new skills and they can help their parents during the holidays. For example, kids can clean their room, give a hand to their grandparents and play video games with their friend. Finally, there are some drawbacks for long holiday kids can lose their concentration from their study or they might get adducted to video games.

Regarding the second question, there are some favorable arguments for shorter holiday. Firstly, the biggest advantage would be student can retain their concentration in academic study, furthermore shorter holiday makes them to stay in discipline. Secondly, parents those work or go to office they can stay without worrying about their children and it will reduce their pressure significantly. At last there was a research about "what is the impact of the short holiday among school going children" this paper talks about those who had shorter holidays in school tend to get good performance score in the class.

In conclusion, although both long holiday and short holiday have some advantages and disadvantages both depends upon the student and environment

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: the opening identifies outdoor activities and travel as benefits of long holidays, while the later paragraph gives reasons for shorter breaks, including maintaining academic focus and easing parents’ concerns. These points are relevant, and the example of children helping family members adds some support. However, the value of long holidays is not consistently developed: the discussion shifts to chores and video games, and the drawbacks of long breaks receive space without being clearly tied to the question. The claim about research is also vague, with no source or detail to explain the reported result. A clearer position in the conclusion and fuller explanation of how each benefit affects children would make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two sides, and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “At last” help signal the progression of points. However, some links are mechanical or unclear. For example, “Finally” introduces drawbacks within the paragraph about long-holiday benefits, and “Regarding the second question” makes the organisation sound like a list of answers rather than a connected discussion. References such as “this” in “while this will help them” are not always precise. The conclusion is brief and does not clearly synthesise the arguments. Use topic sentences that state each paragraph’s main claim, then connect examples and explanations directly to that claim.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “outdoor activities,” “academic study,” “discipline,” and “performance score.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate, sometimes making the meaning less clear. Examples include “freshen up their mind from there academic studies,” “lose their concentration from their study,” and “stay in discipline.” There are also spelling or word-form problems, such as “adducted” where the intended word appears to be “addicted,” and repeated use of “holiday” and “student.” Aim for more precise phrases and check spelling and collocations. For instance, describe children as “maintaining their academic focus” rather than “stay in discipline.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, using clauses with “while,” “because”-type explanations, and examples. Nevertheless, errors occur frequently in basic sentence patterns and in the more complex attempts, which sometimes make the reader pause. Examples include “kid can enjoy,” “shorter school holidays helps,” and “a long holiday give student,” where agreement, articles, or plural forms are not controlled. The sentence beginning “Finally, there are some drawbacks” also needs clearer punctuation and structure to connect the ideas. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, then review articles and singular/plural agreement. Building accurate simple sentences first will help you use longer structures more reliably.

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