Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-30

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 countries, primary and secondary schools are close for longer period( more than a month) during summer vacation. Some believe that it is necessary as during getting out of home can affect overall health. Other argue vacation period should be little shorter as it may affect their overall formal education. In my view, hoildays should be of specific period during summer vaction in order to take care of childern's health as well maintaining the standard education.

On the one hand, During summer the distance of sun is closest to the earth, harmfull radiation and UV rays can affect overall body if exposed to it. During this period students can work on their extracurricular hobbies, learn new skills and work on themself. I agree the fact that during this peak time their should be hoilday period in order to keep student safe and make them work on their skills.

On the other hand, vacation for a longer period can affect overall education as the huge gap between vacation can make student forget what was taught before also longer holidays can waste lots of time on education. For instance lets says a formal primary and secondary education takes 12 years and if each year has 2 months of summer holidays so eventually we are wasting 24 months i.e 2 years just on summer holidays.

In conclusion, there should be a summer vacation so that students can work on their skills in vacation by keeping them safe from harmfull radiations. Although in my view the period of vacation should be reduced in order to save time in fromal education and make them remember what was taught before

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions and give a clear overall view: summer breaks protect students and allow time for personal development, while shorter breaks could reduce learning loss. The discussion of hobbies and skills is relevant, and the example calculating the cumulative time spent on holidays supports your argument for shorter breaks. However, the value of long holidays is developed less fully than the case for shorter ones; the claim that students need protection from summer conditions is asserted rather than explained with specific context, and the health rationale is not consistently clear. The point about forgetting previous lessons is relevant but would benefit from an example or explanation of how shorter breaks would help. Develop each side more evenly and clarify the reasoning behind your position.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, two contrasting body paragraphs signposted by “On the one hand” and “On the other hand,” and a conclusion. This makes the main progression easy to follow, and the example about two years of accumulated holidays is placed appropriately. The organisation is coherent, though some links between ideas are abrupt or unclear. For example, the introduction’s reference to “getting out of home” does not clearly connect to the later argument about health, and the conclusion repeats the main points without fully resolving the balance between them. Capitalisation after transitions is inconsistent, and some sentences contain several ideas without clear punctuation. Use more precise referencing and connect each supporting point explicitly to the paragraph’s main claim.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “extracurricular hobbies,” “formal education,” “UV rays,” and “vacation period.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors make parts of the response less natural or occasionally unclear. Phrases such as “the distance of sun is closest to the earth,” “waste lots of time on education,” and “work on themself” do not express the intended ideas idiomatically. There are also repeated misspellings, including “hoildays,” “harmfull,” and “childern's.” Build a more accurate range of phrases for discussing learning, health, and time, and proofread spelling carefully; this will make your meaning clearer and more precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast between the two sides and a conditional example beginning “if each year has 2 months.” The overall meaning is generally recoverable, but the range is limited and complex constructions are often faulty. For example, “Some believe that it is necessary as during getting out of home can affect overall health” has an incomplete and confusing clause, while “Although in my view the period of vacation should be reduced” is a dependent clause used as a sentence. Other issues include subject–verb agreement in “Other argue” and missing or incorrect articles and plurals in “a formal primary and secondary education takes 12 years.” Practise building complete clauses and checking agreement, articles, and sentence boundaries.

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