Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teachers in different countries get different payments and many people say that teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. Give specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Sample Response
Education is perhaps the most important aspect of a nation's development and teachers play a crucial role in ensuring the quality education in a school. I have to disagree with the statement that teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. In the following paragraphs, I will give my reasons to support my opinion. First of all, students in a class are different and they do not have the similar ability to learn and understand the given lectures. Some students have to spend many hours studying a subject while others can do that quickly. Second, students have different goals in attending schools. Some students want to gain more knowledge and experience that will help them in the future to succeed and make a great career. Others are forced to go to a school by their parents, so, basically, they do not care about their grades and studying and this might be true due to the age they attend the schools as well. I think that penalising or rewarding teachers depending on how much their students have learnt is not fair. However, I believe that evaluation of teachers by their students does make sense. Teachers who get high grades from their students deserve to be rewarded financially or otherwise. On the contrary, teachers who get low grades must be sanctioned by the authority and motivated in other ways to do even better. This will force teachers to constantly improve their knowledge to get a higher salary and simultaneously will improve the learning process. Regular training for teachers is another good way to enhance their teaching skills. Students will have the opportunity to have the best teachers and get more interesting and comprehensive lectures this way. To draw the conclusion, from my everyday experience and observation, I can say that the quality of the lectures given by the teachers often does not reflect how much a student learn or wants to learn. This is why adopting the payment policy based on student's learning is not a good idea.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Fix education noun phrase Original: ensuring the quality education in a school Suggested revision: ensuring quality education in schools Why it matters: The uncountable noun is used without “the,” and the general setting takes a plural noun.
- 2. Use concise reason phrase Original: reasons to support my opinion Suggested revision: reasons for my opinion Why it matters: The shorter prepositional phrase conveys the relationship naturally.
- 3. Fix determiner and number Original: the similar ability Suggested revision: similar abilities Why it matters: “Similar” does not take “the” here, and the plural subject requires “abilities.”
- 4. Clarify the action Original: do that quickly Suggested revision: learn the material quickly Why it matters: The explicit phrase removes the vague reference to the preceding learning process.
- 5. Fix purpose construction Original: goals in attending schools Suggested revision: goals for attending school Why it matters: “Goals for” introduces purpose, and “school” is singular when referring to education generally.
- 6. Use career collocation Original: make a great career Suggested revision: build a successful career Why it matters: People build a career rather than make one.
- 7. Use general school phrase Original: go to a school Suggested revision: attend school Why it matters: The article-free expression refers to participating in education generally.
- 8. Remove informal interruption Original: so, basically, they Suggested revision: so they Why it matters: Removing the informal parenthetical makes the causal link more direct.
- 9. Use parallel nouns Original: grades and studying Suggested revision: grades or studies Why it matters: The parallel nouns distinguish academic results from schoolwork clearly.
- 10. Fix age clause Original: due to the age they attend the schools Suggested revision: because of the age at which they attend school Why it matters: The relative construction correctly links age to attendance, and generic “school” takes no article.
- 11. Use concise gerund phrase Original: evaluation of teachers by their students Suggested revision: having students evaluate their teachers Why it matters: The active gerund construction identifies who performs the evaluation more directly.
- 12. Use evaluation terminology Original: get high grades from their students Suggested revision: receive high ratings from their students Why it matters: Students give teachers ratings, while grades normally assess student work.
Suggested Rewrites
- ensuring the quality education in a school ensuring quality education in schools
- reasons to support my opinion reasons for my opinion
- the similar ability similar abilities
- do that quickly learn the material quickly
- goals in attending schools goals for attending school
- make a great career build a successful career
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response sustains a clear disagreement and gives relevant reasons based on differences in students’ ability and motivation, with generally effective vocabulary and sentence variety. Its main limitation is that some supporting points shift toward alternative teacher evaluation and training without fully developing direct evidence for the stated position. The highest-priority improvement is to organise the argument into distinct paragraphs and support each main reason with a specific, clearly explained example.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A clear position is maintained and supported by relevant reasons, though some later discussion is tangential and examples remain general.
Add one specific example showing how student ability or motivation could distort a teacher's pay assessment.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas follow a logical sequence and linking is generally effective, but the response lacks paragraph breaks and some transitions are mechanical.
Group the introduction, each main reason, alternative evaluation, and conclusion into distinct, purpose-led paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary shows sufficient range for the topic, with several effective academic choices alongside recurring awkward collocations.
Refine phrases such as 'ensure quality education', 'varying learning goals', and 'evaluate teachers' for greater naturalness and precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer uses varied complex structures with mostly clear meaning, despite recurring minor errors in articles, agreement, and possessives.
Edit systematically for articles and agreement, especially forms such as 'a student learns' and 'students’ learning'.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teachers in different countries get different payments and many people say that teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. Give specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.