I recently wrote this band 7 essay for a task from Cambridge IELTS Academic 20. The essay was written on a laptop in about 20 minutes, and I then spent about 10 minutes editing it. No editing apps, AI tools, or dictionaries were used in the process.
Marking was done by qualified IELTS writing trainers, as well as LLMs like Perplexity, ChatGPT and Grok. These AI agents were properly trained using the updated IELTS writing band descriptors.
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?
In many parts of the world, elementary and high schools shut down for two months or longer during the summer. This essay will outline how this can benefit students, as well as the advantages of shorter holidays.
Sending students on an extensive break provides their bodies and minds with more comprehensive rest and recovery. Daily travel to and from school, sitting for hours in classrooms, and studying for nine or ten months tend to be exhausting for young and teenage pupils, and their performance levels would drop over the school year. A few months of summer holidays would be the perfect time for their minds and bodies to relax, enabling them to begin the following school year more enthusiastically1.
There are, however, benefits to having shorter summer holidays. Students find it much easier to return to school after a few weeks rather than months. A short break prevents them from becoming used to having less hectic lives and spending time on their favourite activities, so they will not feel depressed when they have to go back to the busy school schedule2. There can also be more frequents holidays throughout the year, which allows students to experience a wider variety of trips and seasonal activities, such as ski trips in winter or camping in spring3. This would be impossible with one long break.
Personally, I think having shorter and more frequent holidays would benefit students more. They would deal with less anxiety when going back to school4, and would be able to enjoy various seasonal activities, but each period should be long enough for their minds and bodies to recover sufficiently.
length: 270 words
TR 7 | CC 7 | LR 7 | GRA 7
LR
The words and phrases that match the criteria for band 7 vocabulary (flexibility, precision, style, collocation and less common vocabulary) are in bold.
GRA
Band 7 requires a variety of complex sentences, which include subordinate clauses. These clauses have been underlined throughout the essay and here are their types:
1: participle clause
2: adverb clause
3: adjective clause
4: reduced adverb clause