Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-31

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 has been argued that in today's globalized world schools and universities provides long summer break about month. Long holidays play an important role in every children but i believe that it has some advantages.

Numerous reason are involved the support the particular phenomenon. First of all, students can relax after several months studies. Which can also help them spend quality time with their parents. For instance, sometimes children go to their relatives houses during their holidays. As well as children can learn about numerous skills such as cooking, gardening, drawing and swimming etc. Which can build their confident and they can use it everywhere easily. It can also help relief stress and feel refreshed.For example, children can attend many types of event and competition which can assist them to gain prize.

On the other hand, students can forget their valuable lessons which provide their schools or universities before holidays. Short breaks can help them to focus studies more. As an example, one of my friends who forgot his lessons to spend his holidays with his parents a different countries. Apart from that, students can study at home more to upcoming years books. Which assist them to increase their understand skills and they use it upcoming years.

In conclusion, although long holidays are valuable for relaxation and personal developments. However, short breaks can help students to increase their skills and try to do what they interested actually but i believe that schools and universities should provides children to a short break more than long.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions: the first body paragraph explains benefits such as rest, family time and learning practical skills, while the second gives reasons for shorter breaks, including retaining lessons and preparing for future study. Your conclusion also states a preference for shorter holidays, so your position is present. These ideas are relevant, but some are only briefly explained. For example, the point that children can attend events and win prizes is not clearly connected to the value of a long break, and the example about your friend does not explain how shorter holidays would have helped. Develop each main reason with a clearer explanation or a more directly relevant example, and make your position consistent throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two sides and a conclusion. Transitions such as “First of all,” “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” help signal the direction of the discussion. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow. Several sentences begin with “Which,” leaving them as fragments and weakening the links to the preceding ideas. “As well as” also introduces a point without a complete sentence, and the conclusion’s “although … However” creates an awkward connection. Use complete sentences, group related reasons more clearly, and use pronouns or linking phrases with clear references to make the argument flow more smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for the topic, including “relax,” “quality time,” “valuable lessons,” “short breaks” and “relief stress.” There are also attempts to express less basic ideas, such as learning practical skills and feeling refreshed. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unclear, which limits precision: “build their confident,” “increase their understand skills” and “a different countries” do not express the intended meanings naturally. Some wording is also repetitive, particularly repeated references to students and holidays. Build accuracy by learning common word partnerships and checking word forms; for example, use “build their confidence” and “improve their understanding.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple statements and longer sentences, including clauses introduced by “although” and “which.” However, control is uneven, and several sentence structures are incomplete or contain agreement and verb-form errors. For example, “schools and universities provides” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “Which can also help them…” is a fragment rather than a complete sentence. The conclusion also combines “although” with “However” in a way that disrupts the sentence structure. Practise forming complete sentences and checking agreement, articles and verb forms. A useful revision step is to identify the subject and main verb in every sentence, then check that dependent clauses are attached to a complete main clause.

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.