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)

Nowdays, numerous debates wheather a long summer vacation for over two months applied in many schools would be benificial or would have a harmful imapct on the children.

On the one hand, having long summer vacation could provide a time enough to take a break from the hectic educational year, which is needed for many children to enhance their mental health and mood, besidethar children and even young adults would restore the physical fitness through practicing different physical sports by providing more free time, away from the mental stress due to the exams or assignments.

More over, traveling abroad with the family and the friends allows indentification of different culture and visiting the historical places as museums or pyramids.

One of the most enjoyable thing could be done on the vacation aquesitioning a new hoppy to build some improvment of children’s personality by enhacing their confidence,self disciplind and responsibility toward it.

On the other hand, shorter time spent on the summer vacation can aslo be benificial, firstly the children wouldnot forget about their curriculum and continuing the educational mood. secondly adaptation with the educational atmosphere wil be better, along with that better connections and comunication between children as a family all over the year. Recently, schools started to reallocate resources toward art, science exihibitions and physical education which may encourage the students to develop new hoppies and talents in the edicational year period. Egyptian schools provide art classes for all the students free of charge and every week there are many physical compition for the students and different fields of sports, beside organizing trips to varios places to enhance their historical knowledge.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions by explaining benefits of longer holidays—rest, mental health, sport, travel and hobbies—and reasons for shorter breaks, such as retaining curriculum knowledge and maintaining an educational routine. The examples about Egyptian schools’ art classes, competitions and trips also make the discussion relevant. However, the ideas are mostly listed rather than explained in depth: for instance, you mention that hobbies build confidence and responsibility but do not show how this happens. The argument for shorter holidays is less fully developed, and there is no clear concluding judgement to bring the two sides together. Develop fewer points with specific explanation or examples, and make your overall position explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable two-sided structure, signalled by “On the one hand” and “On the other hand,” and the reader can generally follow the shift from the value of long holidays to the case for shorter ones. Some sequencing is also present through “firstly” and “More over.” However, progression within paragraphs is uneven: several benefits are added one after another without showing how they relate, and the second side moves quickly from curriculum retention to family communication and school activities. Connect each point to the main idea and use paragraph breaks to separate and organise the discussion. Check linking expressions and punctuation, as the sequence “firstly… secondly” is not clearly punctuated and some transitions feel mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You attempt a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “hectic educational year,” “mental health,” “physical fitness,” “self discipline,” and “reallocate resources.” These choices show an effort to discuss both wellbeing and education. However, spelling errors and inaccurate word forms are frequent enough to distract, as in “Nowdays,” “benificial,” “indentification,” “hoppy,” and “exihibitions.” Some combinations are also unnatural or unclear, such as “a time enough to take a break” and “aquisitioning a new hoppy.” These issues make parts of the message harder to understand and keep the vocabulary control limited. Learn accurate forms and common collocations, then proofread carefully; precise, natural phrasing will be more effective than attempting unusual expressions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and longer sentences with subordinate clauses, for example the sentence beginning “having long summer vacation could provide…” and the sentence about travelling with family and friends. However, complex structures are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. Examples include “having long summer vacation could provide a time enough,” “children wouldnot forget about their curriculum and continuing,” and “One of the most enjoyable thing could be done.” These show problems with articles, agreement, verb forms and sentence construction. Several ideas are joined into long strings, while sentence boundaries and capitalisation are inconsistent. Practise building accurate sentences first, then combine related ideas using clear clauses and check agreement and verb patterns.

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