Schools should focus on academic success and passing examinations. Skills such as cookery, dressmaking and woodwork should not be taught at school as it is better to learn these from family and friends. To that extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
Some people believe thatIt is believed that schools should prioritize academic education, leaving practical skills, includingpractical skills including cookery, dressmaking, and woodwork to be learned from family and friends. I strongly agree with this viewThis essay strongly agrees with this suggestion for several reasons.
Undoubtedly, acquiring life skills such as cooking and woodworking can be invaluable for personal growth and self-reliance. These skills empower individuals to handle everyday challenges with confidence. However, incorporating such a diverse range of skills into the school curriculum presents significant challenges. Chief among these is that each student has unique interests and strengths, making it impractical to make such courses compulsory for allenforce compulsory courses for all. Instead, parents can play a pivotal role in identifying their children's interestsinclinations and providing tailored opportunities for skill development.
Another compelling argument against integrating life skills into the school curriculum is the already heavyoverwhelming academic workload. Indeed, students are required to study many subjectsconfronted with a multitude of subjects, encompassing the sciences, humanities, and more. Their education requires them to acquireeducational journey entails acquiring knowledge across various fields, completing assignments, and preparing for examinations. The addition of skill-based courses could increase this burdenexacerbate the burden and lead to heightened stress levels. Furthermore, it may divert valuableprecious time and energy away from academic endeavors, potentially affecting students' academic performance.
In conclusion, I firmly believe that the acquisition of practical skills, such as cooking or woodworking, should be viewed as leisure activities that students can pursue at home rather than obligatory subjects within the school curriculum. By maintaining a focus on academic success, schools can better prepare students for a broader range of future opportunities.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The essay presents a clear, consistent position and organizes two well-developed reasons into a polished, easy-to-follow argument. Its main limitation is that parts of the discussion remain somewhat general, particularly the claim that families can provide suitable practical-skills training. The best next step is to test that assumption with a specific example or qualification, which would make the reasoning more convincing while preserving the response's strong control and concision.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response fully addresses the opinion task with a clear position and two relevant, well-developed supporting arguments.
Strengthen the family-learning argument with a concrete example or qualification showing when home instruction is realistically available.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through well-focused paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the reader without becoming intrusive.
Make the transition from acknowledging the value of practical skills to rejecting school provision even more explicit.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and appropriately formal, with strong control of topic-specific and evaluative language.
Refine occasional broad wording such as leisure activities so it captures the practical value of the skills more precisely.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used accurately and flexibly, with consistently clear sentence control.
Continue varying emphasis and sentence openings while preserving the same high level of grammatical accuracy.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Schools should focus on academic success and passing examinations. Skills such as cookery, dressmaking and woodwork should not be taught at school as it is better to learn these from family and friends. To that extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.