Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-05

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 many nations around the world, primary and secondry schools close for two months or more in the summer vacations. It argued that what is the value of long school holidays. This essay also covers my views in favor of shorter school holidays.

To begin with, many schools give long holidays due to intense heat in the summers, which makes it difficult to teach students in the hot environment. However, it longer vacation plays an important role in the growth of students and they develop new skills in their free time. When children play any sports and do physical activity their body strengthen and grow faster. For instance, it is proven by studies that when kids do physical activities during their growing stage their height increase, and many children learn skills in the summer vacations like riding a bicycle and some also learn new languages. These things add value in the long school vacations.

On the other hand, it is argued that school holidays should be shorter because mostly students waste their time in the vacations and do nothing rather than sleeping TV and playing video games. If summer holidays' timespan reduced it will allow pupils to spend more time in schools and focus on their studies. To prove my point, when summer vacation are shorter students do not waste their time in leisure activities like plaing video games, watching TV and in sleeping. It also impact their learning in positive ways.

In conclusion, there are positive aspects of long summer holidays like learning new skills, better and language, but shorter vacation impact the learning and grades of students in a good way and prevent students from wasting their time.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both questions: it gives reasons for long holidays, including relief from summer heat and opportunities to develop skills, and presents a case for shorter breaks based on study time and reduced leisure. The examples of learning to ride a bicycle or a language help make the first point more concrete. However, the value of long holidays is not fully explored, and the argument for shorter holidays relies mainly on the claim that pupils waste time; it would be stronger with a clearer explanation of how shorter breaks improve learning or grades. The position is also not entirely clear: the introduction says the essay covers views in favour of shorter holidays, but the conclusion presents benefits of both without stating which argument is more persuasive. The 18 words copied from the task prompt were not counted.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two sides, and a conclusion. Transitions such as “To begin with,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” make the broad direction easy to follow. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes repetitive: the shorter-holiday paragraph states twice that pupils would spend less time on video games, television, and sleeping. Some links between ideas are also unclear, particularly “However, it longer vacation plays an important role,” where the contrast and reference are difficult to follow. The conclusion introduces “better and language” without a clear connection to the earlier discussion. To improve, organise each paragraph around one main claim, develop it once with explanation and an example, and use referencing that clearly identifies the idea being discussed.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas, and the response attempts relevant terms such as “physical activity,” “growing stage,” “leisure activities,” and “timespan.” However, the range is limited and several word-choice, spelling, or collocation errors make the writing less natural. Examples include “secondry,” “plaing,” “in the summers,” and “their body strengthen.” The phrase “better and language” is unclear, while “waste their time” is repeated rather than expressed more precisely. These issues do not prevent the reader from understanding the general argument, but they sometimes cause difficulty. Build a more accurate range for discussing education and holidays, and check spelling and common word combinations before submitting.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a conditional structure in “If summer holidays' timespan reduced it will allow pupils…” and a relative clause beginning “which makes it difficult…”. However, complex attempts are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to affect clarity. For example, “It argued that what is the value” has an incorrect clause structure; “it longer vacation plays” is missing a grammatical link; and “when summer vacation are shorter” has a subject–verb agreement error. Other problems include “their height increase” and the unclear construction “it also impact their learning.” Work on complete clause patterns, agreement, articles, and consistent conditional forms. Proofreading each sentence for a clear subject and correctly formed verb would improve accuracy.

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.