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
University education is the most important milestone of an individual's professional and personal growth. The time spent during university leaves a deep impact on most of the students. Students benefit from the professional relationship built during this time as well as the learnings they get from the mentors and fellow students. The living environment plays a key role for an individual student for the duration of their education. Broadly, there are two modes of residency a student can choose, university dormitories and apartments in a community. Both have their own positives and negatives. We will shed some light on both to strike a basic comparison.
Most large universities facilitate dormitories for its students. While a few mandate the students to live in dormitories, most keep it optional for the students to choose. With the university's perspective, students staying in hostels enable them to maintain discipline and make it easy for them to administer the students. It becomes easy for the University's administration to engage students for events, motivate students with different programs and furthermore it helps the university to keep an eye on the student's progress in non-academic activities too. With the Student's perspective, staying in the University hostel is convenient, since if the university campus is really large, a student would waste a lot of time in commute is staying at a far place. It also helps a student to have group study sessions and working groups to grow in academics and co-curricular activities.
Since hostel accommodation is not suitable for many students because of few negatives like ragging, harassment and lack of privacy, many students prefer to have their own arrangement. Students prefer to live in apartments in communities either sharing with a fellow student or living as a paying guest with a family. This has many advantages such as the students can tailor the room as per their demand and preference. It also helps students to live an affordable living and save the cost. Students get their privacy and space to study without getting disturbed by nuances. While it has advantages, it can also make a student lonely which can increase the stress resulting into problems like depression.
In a nutshell, every student can have their personal preferences and should decide what suits them best. Personally, I would prefer living in a hostel accommodation where I can learn new things, make new friends and build new bonds with beautiful experiences. As every individual is unique, their needs are unique, University Administration can work towards making the hostels suit to the students’ needs as much as possible. Students can use the experience to the betterment of their career.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use a natural collocation Original: leaves a deep impact Suggested revision: has a profound impact Why it matters: “Has a profound impact” is the natural formal collocation.
- 2. Use the plural noun Original: relationship Suggested revision: relationships Why it matters: The general reference covers multiple connections formed with different people.
- 3. Use standard academic wording Original: the learnings they get Suggested revision: the knowledge they gain Why it matters: “Knowledge they gain” is the natural expression for what students learn.
- 4. Correct the preposition Original: for Suggested revision: in Why it matters: “Play a role in” is the standard prepositional construction.
- 5. Use the precise term Original: two modes of residency Suggested revision: two housing options Why it matters: “Housing options” directly describes the two places students may choose to live.
- 6. Use formal comparison terms Original: their own positives and negatives Suggested revision: their own advantages and disadvantages Why it matters: These are the standard formal terms for comparing benefits and drawbacks.
- 7. Use a direct expression Original: shed some light on both to strike a basic comparison Suggested revision: compare the two options Why it matters: The revision removes mixed and unnecessary idiomatic phrasing.
- 8. Use the correct verb Original: facilitate Suggested revision: provide Why it matters: Universities “provide” accommodation rather than “facilitate” a building.
- 9. Match the plural subject Original: its Suggested revision: their Why it matters: The plural subject “universities” requires the plural possessive “their.”
- 10. Use the correct construction Original: mandate the students Suggested revision: require students Why it matters: Institutions “require students to” do something rather than “mandate the students.”
- 11. Correct the capitalisation Original: University's Suggested revision: university's Why it matters: “University” is a common noun here and should not be capitalised.
- 12. Use consistent British English Original: different programs Suggested revision: various programmes Why it matters: “Programmes” matches British English, and “various” is more precise than “different.”
Suggested Rewrites
- leaves a deep impact has a profound impact
- relationship relationships
- the learnings they get the knowledge they gain
- for in
- two modes of residency two housing options
- their own positives and negatives their own advantages and disadvantages
Why this response received Band 6.5
The essay compares both accommodation choices and gives a clear preference for university housing, with useful discussion of convenience, group study, privacy, independence, and cost. Its strongest feature is the balanced topical structure. The main limitation is that some points focus on university administration or disadvantages rather than the requested advantages, while frequent awkward collocations reduce precision. Prioritise direct student-centred comparisons supported by specific examples.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both options are addressed and the preference is clear, with several developed advantages, though some discussion drifts to administrative benefits and disadvantages.
Compare matched student benefits such as campus convenience and social support versus privacy, autonomy, and community integration, then justify the final preference directly.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay has a clear introduction, separate body paragraphs for each option, and a conclusion with logical overall progression.
Shorten the lengthy introduction and use explicit comparative links between corresponding advantages instead of treating the options as largely separate lists.
Lexical Resource
There is enough vocabulary to discuss accommodation and student life, but frequent inaccurate collocations limit flexibility and precision.
Use 'types of accommodation', 'provide dormitories', 'from a student's perspective', 'reduce commuting time', and 'live affordably'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex structures conveys the argument, but agreement, articles, prepositions, sentence formation, and possessives contain frequent errors.
Correct structures such as 'universities provide dormitories for their students' and 'a student may waste time commuting if they live far away'.
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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.