Many students have to live with roommates while going to school or university. What are some of the important qualities of a good roommate? Use specific reasons and examples to explain why these qualities are important.
Sample Response
Every student, at some point in their educationduring some parts of their education, especially while takingdoing professional courses, has to stay away from home and live in hostel accommodationa hostel accommodation. During this period, they share their rooms with other students. Roommates with certain qualities become ideal and others expect to have such roommates. In my opinion, a good roommate should be kind, understanding, open-minded, and free of any bad habitsfree from any bad habit that would disturb the other occupantsmembers of the room. First and foremost, a good roommate should be kind and generous. A good roommate should be ableHe or she should be able to help their roommate with their studies when neededthe roommate when needed in their studies and give them emotionalmental support. There should not be any unnecessary fights or arguments. Moreover, he or she should be understandinghas to be understanding and friendly. Secondly, that person should not be selfish. As they live together, there should be an open-mindedness to share the facilities available equally between the two. For example, the time for using the bathroom, usage of night lamp for studies and so on. Lastly, a consideratenice roommate should be free of any bad habits such asbad habits like smoking, gambling and drinking. It is often the case thatIt is quite often the fact that roommates with bad habitshabit can influence others quicklyvery fast since students spend most of theirthe time with them and finally end up adopting these habitstaking these habits to themselves. This, in turn, can have a serious impactvery bad impact on their health, studies, and characterhealth, studies and characters. In conclusion, having a good roommate is essential for our professional and personal growth and as a roommate, we should also possess those qualities.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The essay identifies several relevant roommate qualities and supports them with practical reasons involving study support, shared facilities, and harmful habits. Its main limitation is that the response is compressed into one paragraph and some examples remain fragmentary or linguistically awkward. The highest-priority improvement is to develop each quality in a separate paragraph with one complete, specific example showing how it improves shared living.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses the task with a clear range of qualities and relevant reasons and examples, though some ideas are only briefly developed.
Explain each quality through a fuller situation showing the effect on both roommates.
Coherence and Cohesion
The qualities follow a logical sequence with clear signposting, but the single-paragraph presentation weakens organisation and emphasis.
Group related qualities into distinct body paragraphs and integrate examples into complete sentences.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficient for discussing shared living, but several word choices and collocations are unnatural or imprecise.
Use natural phrases such as student accommodation, emotional support, share facilities fairly, and adopt bad habits.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Both simple and complex forms are attempted, but recurring errors in agreement, articles, pronouns, and sentence completion reduce control.
Check that every example is a complete sentence and that singular and plural references remain consistent.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS Writing Task 2
Many students have to live with roommates while going to school or university. What are some of the important qualities of a good roommate? Use specific reasons and examples to explain why these qualities are important.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.