Universities should accept equal numbers of male and female students in every subject. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
In my opinion, men and women should have equal educational opportunitiesthe same educational opportunities. However, I do not agree with the idea of admitting equal proportions of men and womenaccepting equal proportions of each gender in every university subject.
Having the same number of men and women acrosson all degree courses is simply unrealistic. Student numbers on any course depend on the applications that the institution receives. If a university decided to enrol equal numbers on coursesfill courses with equal numbers of males and females, it would need enough applicants of each gender. In reality, many courses are more attractive to applicants of one gender than the othermore popular with one gender than the other, and it would not be practical to aim for equal proportions. For example, nursing courses tend to attract more female applicants, and it would be difficult to fill these courses if fifty per cent of the places had to be allocated to male applicantsfifty per cent of the places needed to go to males.
Beyond these practical concernsApart from the practical concerns expressed above, I also believe that it would be unfair to base university admissions decisions on genderbase admission to university courses on gender. Universities should continue to select the best candidates for each course according to their qualifications. By selecting candidates on merit, both men and womenIn this way, both men and women have the same opportunities, and applicants know that their applications will succeed if they work hardthey will be successful if they work hard to achieve good grades at school. If a female student is the best candidate for a place on a course, it is surely wrong to reject her in favor of a male student with lower grades or fewer qualifications.
In conclusion, the selection of university students should be based on merit, and it would be both impractical and unfair to adopt a selection procedure based on genderchange to a selection procedure based on gender.
Why this response received Band 9.0
The response presents a clear, fully sustained position and develops two convincing reasons with relevant explanation and a well-chosen example. Its main limitation is that the practical argument could acknowledge more explicitly how admissions policies might operate when applicant pools are uneven, although this does not weaken the central case. The highest-priority refinement is to add one brief qualification that anticipates a plausible counterargument and further strengthens the reasoning.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The position is explicit throughout, and both the practical and fairness arguments are fully developed with relevant support.
Add a concise qualification about possible institutional responses to uneven applicant pools to make the case even more nuanced.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay progresses seamlessly from the position to two distinct supporting arguments and a precise conclusion.
Maintain this controlled progression while varying the opening of supporting paragraphs in future responses.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is broad, precise, and natural, with effective topic-specific choices such as qualifications, applicants, and selection procedure.
Continue refining semantic precision by distinguishing equal access, equal opportunity, and equal representation where useful.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used accurately and flexibly throughout the response.
Preserve this level of control while experimenting with occasional concise sentence structures for added rhetorical contrast.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Universities should accept equal numbers of male and female students in every subject. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.