Some young people look forward to a gap year before they begin work or university and see it as a chance to broaden their horizons. For others, this is expensive and a waste of time. Which viewpoint do you agree with?
Sample Response
TodayIn contemporary times, many young people contemplate taking a gap year to explore the world or gain work experience before embarking on their academic or professional journey. While some view it as an opportunity to broaden their horizons, others consider it an expensive and unproductive use of timeunproductive idea. In my opinion, taking a gap year can bring significant benefits and is a worthwhile investment for young people.
On the one hand, the idea of taking a gap year can be seen as an unproductive choiceventure as it involves a significant amount of money and time. For instance, the expenses incurred through travelexpenses incurred on travelling, accommodation, and other leisure activities during the gap year can be exorbitantquite exorbitant. Additionally, spending a year without any structured activities may result in a lack of discipline and motivation, which can be detrimental in the long run.
On the other hand, taking a gap year before starting university or work can provide valuable opportunities for personal growth and development. The time spent exploring new cultures, meeting new people, and trying new activitiestrying out new things can help young people gain a better understanding of themselves and their place in the world. This experience can lead to improved self-confidence and a broader perspective, which can be highly beneficial in academic and professional pursuits.
Overall, I support the idea of taking a gap year as it provides young people with an opportunity to develop themselves outside traditional academic or professional settingsoutside the traditional academic or professional structure. Despite the expenses and the risk of being unproductivethe potential for unproductivity, a well-planned gap year can provide personal and professional benefitsresult in personal and professional benefits that can last a lifetime.
In conclusion, young people should be encouraged to take a gap year, but they should also be aware of the potential drawbacks and carefully consider their options before making a decision. If a gap year is used productivelyIf this year is used properly, they will reap more benefits.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The essay presents a clear, consistent preference for a well-planned gap year and explains both the potential drawbacks and the personal-development benefits in a fluent, controlled style. The principal limitation is that the support remains broad and hypothetical, while the separate overall and concluding paragraphs repeat substantially the same judgment. The best improvement would be to develop the benefits with one concrete example and consolidate the ending.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response answers the choice directly, maintains a clear position, and develops relevant reasons on both viewpoints, though support is mostly general.
Add a specific example showing how a structured gap-year activity produces a lasting academic or professional benefit.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphing and progression are clear, but the sequence of "Overall" and "In conclusion" creates a repetitive two-stage ending.
Combine the final two paragraphs into one concise conclusion that restates the position without repeating earlier points.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible, precise, and well suited to the topic, with effective choices such as "exorbitant," "detrimental," and "worthwhile investment."
Further refine lexical precision by replacing broad phrases such as "trying out new things" with language tied to specific gap-year activities.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used accurately and naturally, with only rare minor awkwardness that does not affect clarity.
Maintain this control while varying a few repeated sentence patterns built around modal verbs and "can" constructions.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some young people look forward to a gap year before they begin work or university and see it as a chance to broaden their horizons. For others, this is expensive and a waste of time. Which viewpoint do you agree with?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.