Many young people leave school with a negative attitude towards learning. What are the possible reasons for this? Suggest some solutions to address this problem.

Same questionCompare 2 different answers (Band 7.5–8)

Sample Response

1

Many young people nowadays completeyoung people, nowadays, complete their school education with a negative attitude towardnegative outlook towards learning and education as a whole. This essay will identify the root causes of this trend and proposetrend, and propose a couple of effective solutions to address this situation.

2

The first reason why many youths possess a negative attitude towardnegative mentality about learning is that most schools focus on learners’ academic performance while putting very little emphasis on developing their practical life skillspractical and important life skills. This makes learning less interesting and makes young people questionless interesting while making youths wonder about the valuefruitfulness of learning. Oftentimes, when students finish school, they realise that practical skills are more important than academic achievements in society and the workplacein society and job sectors; thus, school-leaversthus school-leavers are disappointed and lose their motivation to learn more. On top of that, the majority of teachers still use traditional teaching methodstraditional methodologies in teaching which encourage memorisationencourage and promote memorisation techniques for exams. As a result, students feel that learning is an arduous and unstimulating processarduous process, which is not stimulating at all. The result is rejecting attitudes toward further learning by school graduates.

3

This problem could be largely alleviatedsolved to a great extent by adopting some pragmatic measures. The most effective solution, in my opinion, is that education must be aligned with students’ future needseducation must be harnessed to students’ needs for their future, and educators prioritise that when teaching in schools. Essentially, schools have to look at how to meet the demandsdemand of a changing society and provide more practical skills and knowledge to their pupils. Since teachers’ pedagogicalpedagogy style directly determines whether students enjoy learningwhether students enjoy learning or not, teachers should kindle students’ interest in learning by applying more engaging methods in the classroom. Finally, youths should be rewarded for their effortsendeavour to learn and apply their knowledge, and the government can play a vital role here. For instance, they could be engaged in teaching juniors, working in libraries, writing in newspapers, and working in other places where they can constantly learn, earn and use their skills.

4

To conclude, a large number of young people do not like learning after they leave school due to their negative attitude towards learning. I believe, effective measures, such as - changing the focus of schools, modifying teachers’ approaches to teaching, and engaging youths in works where they can earn and learn - could reverse the trend.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The response fully addresses both causes and solutions, with especially strong development of how academically narrow curricula and traditional teaching can discourage further learning. Its main limitation is occasional imprecision and slightly cumbersome phrasing in otherwise sophisticated language; the highest-priority improvement is to refine collocations and sentence construction so that every proposed solution and example is expressed with maximum clarity.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TR

Task Response

8.0
Scoring rule

Both parts are directly and thoroughly addressed through well-developed causes and relevant, practical solutions.

Next step

Strengthen the final government-employment example by explaining more explicitly how each activity rebuilds motivation to learn.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

7.5
Scoring rule

Ideas progress clearly from causes to matched solutions, with effective paragraphing and generally controlled cohesive devices.

Next step

Reduce minor repetition within the causes paragraph and make the relationship between each solution and its corresponding cause even more explicit.

LR

Lexical Resource

7.5
Scoring rule

The response demonstrates a wide, flexible topic vocabulary, although a few collocations such as rejecting attitudes and pedagogy style are unnatural.

Next step

Refine occasional word combinations by using natural alternatives such as resistance to further learning and teaching approach.

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.5
Scoring rule

A wide variety of complex structures is used with strong control, despite occasional awkward coordination and punctuation.

Next step

Polish sentence joins and comma placement, particularly around reporting clauses and coordinated recommendations.

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IELTS Writing Task 2

Many young people leave school with a negative attitude towards learning. What are the possible reasons for this? Suggest some solutions to address this problem.

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