In the past, when students did a university degree, they tended to study in their own country. Nowadays, they have more opportunity to study abroad. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development?
Sample Response
Around 30 years agoOnly around 30 years ago or so, it was hard for people to travel becausetravel, because of financial constraintsthe monetary problems or difficulties in collectingthe difficulties to collect the required documentsa wide range of documents needed. Nowadays, not only visiting but also living in other countries isnot only visiting, but living in the other countries are fairly usual and many students decide to pursue a degreetake the degree at foreign universitiesat the foreign universities. However, does this bringallow them more benefits than drawbacks? Let’s discuss. On the one hand, it happens that the student's home university may not bemay be not the best in the world in some fields of study. Hence, students won't be able to obtain knowledgeobtain the knowledge at the required level and become highly skilled professionalsbecome a highly professional in their future careersat his future career. That is why students choose universities with a positive reputationthe universities with the positive reputation outside their home countryoutside their own motherland. On the other hand, some countries, as North Korea, regard living in other countries as treacherycount the living in the different countries as treachery. Leaving one's home country to study meansLeave the home area for studying means to show how bad the teaching is inside. It will harm the country's reputationresult on the popularity of the country and thus, the tourism level. Also, usually, the period of learning at the university lasts from 3 to 7 years and by the time a person graduatesby the time the person will graduate, he will get used to living abroad. Hence, talented professionals may forget their homelandbright and able professionals would forget its motherland, which will lower its international standinglower down its place in international levels even more. In conclusion, I also want to study medicine in the foreign country, because the level of it in my home country is not that high and I wish it was better. For me, the advantages of studying abroad outweigh drawbacks. However, I do want the students to come back and help their home countries even in every way.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The essay identifies a meaningful academic advantage of studying abroad and a relevant risk that skilled graduates may not return home, and it states a clear personal evaluation. However, the discussion is unbalanced and partly unconvincing, especially the claim that overseas study damages national tourism, while frequent language errors weaken clarity. Develop two directly relevant advantages and disadvantages in separate paragraphs, using realistic examples and more accurate grammar and vocabulary.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both advantages and disadvantages are addressed and a clear evaluation is given, but the benefits are narrow and part of the national-reputation argument is weakly relevant or insufficiently supported.
Develop broader benefits such as specialist education and cultural growth, then contrast them with costs, adjustment difficulties, or brain drain using credible examples.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a recognisable advantage-disadvantage-conclusion sequence, but one-block presentation and several unclear causal links weaken progression.
Create separate body paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, with each paragraph following a clear claim, explanation, and example structure.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is sufficient to discuss education and migration, but frequent inaccurate collocations, word forms, and pronoun choices reduce precision.
Use natural phrases such as financial constraints, gather documents, study for a degree abroad, reputable university, regard as disloyal, and contribute to brain drain.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Simple and complex structures communicate the main message, but agreement, articles, infinitive and gerund forms, pronouns, prepositions, and clause construction are frequently inaccurate.
Check every sentence for subject-verb agreement and consistent pronouns, and revise phrases after prepositions or as sentence subjects into correct gerund forms.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In the past, when students did a university degree, they tended to study in their own country. Nowadays, they have more opportunity to study abroad. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.