Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-02

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 several countries, primary and secondary schools close for two months more in the summer holidays. I beleive longer school holidays adds a lot value in the students life in way to assess things as they got the time to go on a trip. There is a chance they can lose focus from their studies if they don't work on their weak subjects.

Those students who spend their holiday's by going on a trip to hill stations or abroad can change their way of thinking. Longer holidays give their parents to plan holidays easliy so they expore multiple areas. If they visit northern areas of Pakistan which includes multiple beautiful sceneries they can see the nature beauty and also thinking how people are living there having less resoures as compare to the urban areas. For example, teachers have noticed the change in the students behavior who visited some other city during their holidays. As this give them to learn new words or learn how to travel and speak with people.

Losing focus from the studies is also a great threat. Any student who is weak in any subject and he did not put any effort in improving his knowledge and completing the holiday task results in a bad grade and poor performace. Most of the students spend their time playing video games and physical game and did not spend time on their study affect their routine. That's why shorter hollidays help them not losing a focus from their studies. The schools expect to do whatever they plan for their holiday and come back and put effort in their studies.

In conclusion, students spending great time on longer holidays give them a chance to experience multiple things by going on a trip to hill stations and abroad. However, shorter holidays give them to do whatever they want and come back to school on time so they can not lose their focus from studies.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions and present a relevant contrast: longer holidays can provide travel and learning experiences, while shorter breaks may help students maintain study habits. The Pakistan example gives the first point some specificity, and the discussion of weak subjects and holiday tasks supports the case for shorter holidays. However, the two sides are not developed equally: the benefits of travel are explained in more detail, while the arguments for shorter holidays rely mainly on losing focus and poor grades. The conclusion restates the contrast but does not add much to the reasoning. To strengthen the response, explain more fully how shorter breaks benefit learning, and clarify how travel experiences contribute to students’ development. (The response meets the length requirement; 9 words copied from the task prompt were not counted.)

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two main arguments, and a conclusion. This makes the central contrast easy to follow. You also use signposting such as “For example,” “However,” and “In conclusion.” However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear, and several links feel mechanical or do not express the intended relationship accurately. For instance, “As this give them to learn new words” does not clearly connect the example to its point, while the final paragraph repeats ideas already stated. Use clearer topic sentences and connect each example directly to the claim it supports. More precise referencing and a wider range of natural transitions would make the organisation smoother.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “weak subjects,” “performace,” “urban areas,” and “resources,” and the travel example gives you opportunities to discuss nature and different ways of life. However, the range is limited in places, and inaccurate word choice, collocation, word forms, and spelling are noticeable. Phrases such as “adds a lot value,” “change their way of thinking,” and “the nature beauty” are not natural or precise; spelling errors include “beleive,” “easliy,” and “hollidays.” These issues do not prevent the reader from understanding the main ideas, but they reduce clarity and control. Build a bank of accurate topic collocations and proofread spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “if they don't work on their weak subjects” and a relative clause in “which includes multiple beautiful sceneries.” The main ideas are generally understandable, but errors in sentence structure, agreement, verb forms, articles, and prepositions occur across the response. For example, “Longer holidays give their parents to plan holidays” has an incomplete grammatical pattern, and “Most of the students … did not spend time on their study affect their routine” combines clauses without a clear structure. There are also agreement problems in “longer school holidays adds.” Practise building accurate complex sentences and check that each clause has a clear subject and verb.

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.