Students at universities often have a choice of places to live. They may choose to live in university dormitories, or they may choose to live in apartments in the community. Compare the advantages of living in university housing with the advantages of living in an apartment in the community. Where would you prefer to live?
Sample Response
Some students prefer to live in university dormitories. However, other students choose to live in apartments in the community. I think both of these options have advantages. In this essay, I will give my reasons to support my view.
On the one handFrom the one side, living in a dormitory has many benefits. First of all, for a foreign student, it is a good chance to improve his or her communication skills and makefind new friends. SecondSecond of all, a dormitory has many useful facilities such as libraries, a canteen, Internet access, etc. In addition to these practical benefits, livingbenefits living in a dormitory is often cheaper. So, it helps students save some money, which is importantmoney what is important at the beginning of their independent liveslife. Finally, living in a dormitory gives students the opportunity to ask each other for helpask for help each other if something iswas not clear inon the lecture presented in a class. This, in turn, leads to higher grades. Also, students have many common subjectssubject and interests to discuss with each other. So, basically, living in a dormitory helps students to become more sociable and good team-players and gain new knowledge and experience through the use of laboratories, libraries, and group discussionsby use of lab, libraries and group discussion.
On the other handFrom the other side, living in apartments in the community also hashave a few benefits. Students can have more privacy and they can also chooseand, also, they can choose a community according to its convenience and location. This may sometimes be essentialIt is sometimes may be an essential because of a person's job.
In conclusion, I think that living in a dormitory brings students more benefits than it does living in a community. Students learn to get along with each other, be ready to help and make friends.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response is strongest when explaining the social, academic, and financial advantages of university housing, and its final preference is clear. However, the comparison is substantially unbalanced because apartment living receives only brief, general treatment, while frequent grammatical and collocational problems weaken precision. Prioritise developing the apartment side with specific explanations and then compare both options directly before stating the preference.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses both housing options and states a preference, but the apartment advantages are insufficiently developed compared with the dormitory discussion.
Add specific explanations or examples for privacy, location, and independence, then weigh those benefits directly against university housing.
Coherence and Cohesion
The overall organisation is easy to follow, but the body is imbalanced and several linking expressions are mechanical or inaccurately formed.
Give the two alternatives more proportionate paragraph development and use natural contrast markers rather than 'From the one side' and 'From the other side'.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary adequately covers accommodation, facilities, and student life, but repeated words and inaccurate collocations reduce precision.
Improve collocations and word forms in phrases such as 'make friends', 'common subjects', and 'through laboratory work and group discussion'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Both simple and complex structures are attempted, but frequent errors in agreement, articles, relative clauses, and verb construction are noticeable throughout.
Focus first on subject-verb agreement and clause formation, correcting patterns such as 'living ... has' and avoiding double verbs like 'is may be'.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Students at universities often have a choice of places to live. They may choose to live in university dormitories, or they may choose to live in apartments in the community. Compare the advantages of living in university housing with the advantages of living in an apartment in the community. Where would you prefer to live?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.