Research indicates that children who start reading earlier in life perform better later on in their school studies. How important are early reading skills in a child's academic performance? What other preschool factors, in your opinion, influence a child's later academic achievements?
Sample Response
Many research work demonstrates that children who are taught reading in early life can deliver better academic performance in later years. This essay will first discuss how early reading skills enhance a child’s academic success by building a sound foundation of education and then delineate how early math skills and executive functioning skills contribute to a child’s later academic success.
Early reading competencies lay a solid foundation for a child’s education journey and have a profound effect on his overall academic performance. When children improve phonemic awareness, phonic knowledge and sight word recognition, they can read fluently. In turn, this groundwork enables them to comprehend complex concepts and ideas, thus stimulating language development. Early reading skills are therefore a hugely useful tool to excel in all academic subjects. A child with good reading skills, for instance, will find it easier to understand complex mathematics or historical textbooks.
In my opinion, early math skill is another preschool factor that can substantially contribute to the children’s later academic achievement. Early math skills, such as number recognition, counting and sorting, learned in the early years can have beneficial impacts on the children’s academic performance. This is because math builds the foundation of problem-solving, critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills that can be applicable to different subjects. For example, in physics, mathematical skills help to solve problems related to energy or motion. Moreover, executive functioning skills, for instance, planning, impulse control, and organisation lead to academic success.
In conclusion, early reading skills are of crucial importance because they contribute to almost all subjects by enhancing language development. However, other preschool factors, such as early math skills and executive functioning skills, also have a lasting impact on a child’s academic achievements.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use uncountable research Original: Many research work Suggested revision: Much research Why it matters: “Research” is uncountable in this general statement.
- 2. Correct verb pattern Original: are taught reading Suggested revision: are taught to read Why it matters: The verb “teach” takes a to-infinitive when describing the learned action.
- 3. Improve academic collocation Original: deliver better academic performance Suggested revision: achieve better academic results Why it matters: “Achieve academic results” is more natural than “deliver academic performance” in this context.
- 4. Use natural collocation Original: a sound foundation of education Suggested revision: a sound educational foundation Why it matters: “Educational foundation” is the more idiomatic noun phrase.
- 5. Use adjective form Original: education Suggested revision: educational Why it matters: The adjective “educational” naturally modifies “journey.”
- 6. Keep pronouns inclusive Original: his Suggested revision: their Why it matters: Singular “their” avoids assigning a gender to the generic child.
- 7. Choose precise verb Original: improve Suggested revision: develop Why it matters: Children develop awareness as they acquire this early reading skill.
- 8. Refine formal wording Original: hugely useful tool to excel Suggested revision: highly useful foundation for excelling Why it matters: The revision uses a more natural formal collocation while preserving the claim.
- 9. Fix number agreement Original: early math skill is another preschool factor Suggested revision: early math skills are another preschool factor Why it matters: The general category requires a plural noun and plural verb.
- 10. Use concise collocation Original: have beneficial impacts Suggested revision: have a beneficial impact Why it matters: The singular collocation is more natural for the overall effect being described.
- 11. Sentence rewrite Original: Moreover, executive functioning skills, for instance, planning, impulse control, and organisation lead to academic success. Suggested revision: Moreover, executive functioning skills such as planning, impulse control and organisation lead to academic success. Why it matters: The rewrite integrates the examples without separating the subject from its verb with incorrect commas.
Suggested Rewrites
- Many research work Much research
- are taught reading are taught to read
- deliver better academic performance achieve better academic results
- a sound foundation of education a sound educational foundation
- education educational
- his their
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response is focused, logically organised, and especially strong in explaining how early reading and mathematical skills support later learning through relevant subject-based examples. The brief assertion about executive functioning is its main limitation, and a few collocational and count-noun errors slightly weaken polish; the highest-priority improvement is to develop that additional factor with the same clear causal explanation given to reading and mathematics.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both parts are answered directly with a clear view and well-developed explanations, although executive functioning is only briefly asserted.
Add a specific explanation or example showing how planning, impulse control, or organisation improves later classroom achievement.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress smoothly through purposeful paragraphs, and cohesive devices make the relationships between claims and examples consistently clear.
Refine the transition to executive functioning so it is integrated into the argument rather than appended as a final point.
Lexical Resource
A wide and topic-appropriate vocabulary conveys academic concepts precisely, with only occasional unnatural combinations or word-form choices.
Polish collocations and count nouns, especially phrases such as research studies, academic performance, and early mathematical skills.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are varied and generally well controlled, while the few agreement and singular-plural errors do not impede meaning.
Check noun number and determiner agreement systematically to remove small errors in otherwise sophisticated sentences.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Research indicates that children who start reading earlier in life perform better later on in their school studies. How important are early reading skills in a child's academic performance? What other preschool factors, in your opinion, influence a child's later academic achievements?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.