Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-26

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 most of the countries,there are summer holidays for secondary and primary schools.In which the schools are closed for 1 to 2 months.

It is argued that,there should be less school holidays for the children.Many people believe that long holidays for the children is harmful.From their perspective,the children waste their time in the holidays.They don't study enough and waste their time using smart devices.Which is also not good for their health.Many people believe that the children must do study every day.In this age,their only work is to hard.

But in my opinion,I am astrong advocate of long holidays.From my perspective,I strongly believe that,there should be a break from doing studies.Studying is a good habit,doing studies only and ignoring other activities is wrong.Summer holidays are the best holidays to fresh your mind.Furthermore,in the summer holidays children should indulged in sports.Like playing football,basketball,cricket and tennis,these are the activities in which do exercise and get rid of stress,and have a joyful time.Indulging in sports is crucial for the children.Because it makes them physically healthy.And when you are physically strong,you are mentally strong.From my perspective there is a crucial value of holidays for the children.In

many schools,there are shorter holidays.And most of the students of those schools are depressed.Because of the hard studies.

In conclusion,I am a strong advocate of having long summer holidays.Because,it gives the children little break from the studies.Summer holidays are essential for the children.In these holidays they can do many fun activities.Which keeps them mentally fresh and shrpen their minds.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both parts of the question and make your position clear: you support long summer holidays, while also presenting the opposing view that children may waste time or use devices excessively. Your reasons for longer breaks—rest, sports, physical health and stress relief—are relevant. However, the case for shorter holidays is less fully explained, and several points about long holidays repeat the idea of taking a break without developing its wider value, such as family time or independent learning. The claim that students in schools with shorter holidays are depressed is also broad and unsupported. To strengthen the response, explain the opposing arguments more fairly and support each main point with a specific example or clearer reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: it introduces the issue, discusses arguments against long holidays, gives your own view, and ends with a conclusion. Paragraphing helps distinguish these stages. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow, and several sentences are fragments, such as “Which is also not good for their health” and “Because it makes them physically healthy.” Linking words including “From my perspective” and “Because” are repeated, while some connections between claims are unclear. For example, the statement about depression in schools with shorter holidays appears abruptly. Group related points into complete paragraphs, use a wider range of clear transitions, and make sure each sentence connects logically to the next.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate your main ideas, including “summer holidays,” “smart devices,” “physically healthy,” and “stress.” There are also attempts at more expressive language, such as “a strong advocate” and “crucial value.” However, vocabulary is often repetitive, particularly “holidays,” “children,” and “studies,” and some combinations are unnatural or imprecise: “fresh your mind,” “do study,” and “their only work is to hard.” Spelling errors such as “sharpen” written as “shrpen” also reduce accuracy. Build a more varied set of natural collocations for education, rest and recreation, and check word forms and spelling during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, and the main position is generally understandable. However, control is inconsistent, especially in sentence boundaries, agreement, articles and verb patterns. Examples include “there are summer holidays” where the article and phrasing need attention, “long holidays … is harmful,” and “children should indulged in sports.” Several clauses are punctuated as separate sentences even though they depend on what comes before, as in “Which is also not good for their health” and “Because it makes them physically healthy.” Commas are also frequently placed incorrectly around introductory phrases. Practise building complete sentences with accurate subject–verb agreement and verb forms, then proofread punctuation so dependent clauses are joined to a main clause.

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