Some people think that they can learn better by themselves than with a teacher. Others think that it is always better to have a teacher. Which one do you prefer? Use specific reasons to develop your essay.

Same questionCompare 3 different answers (Band 6–6.5)

Sample Response

1

People are learning throughout their entire livesthrough their entire life. In most cases, our first teachersOur first teachers in most cases are our parents. They teach us to walk, speak, behave ourselves, etc. With great patience, they pass downThey with great patience pass down their knowledge and experience to their children. There is no doubt that we need our parents to learn essential skillsthings. By sharing their knowledge, parents prepare childrenParents giving their knowledge prepare children to join the "real world". At this stageSo, at this point, we need teachers to learn some basic things.

2

When children go to a school or college they have there many teachers who help them study more difficult and complicated things. Personally, I think that young people need teachers because in most cases they basically do not yet understanddo not understand yet the importance of learning some subjects they find uninteresting"uninteresting things" such as logic, literature, grammargrammatical, etc. ThereforeSo, teachers keep children on track and sometimes make them learn. I think, at adolescence and young need teachers because they help them develop and improve themselves in order to succeed in life.

3

However, I believe that when a person is no longer a child and he has a job and lives an independent life he can choose how he is going to study. As for me, my choice between studying by myself or with somebody's help depends on thea teacher. If a teacher has engaging lecturesvery interesting lectures and gives many examples from different resources, I will attendresources I will attend his or her classes with great pleasure. However, if a teacher has dull lecturesdry and boring lectures and does not try to make them interesting, I will getinteresting I will get some books and study this subject by myself. It saves me time and probably some money if I borrow books from a librarytake books in a library.

4

So, basically, some teachers can give their students so much in a short period of time that it is worth spending one's timeworth to spend one's time attending lectures. At the same time, from my point of view, other teachers can not give me the knowledge I need at my pace.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 6.5

The response’s strongest feature is its coherent, nuanced position: teachers are valuable during childhood, while adults can choose according to teaching quality and personal needs. The main limitation is that some supporting points are general and the final preference could be stated more decisively. The priority is to sharpen the thesis and conclusion, then support the conditional preference with one fully developed, specific example.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TR

Task Response

7.0
Scoring rule

The response answers the choice question with a qualified preference and gives relevant reasons for teacher-led and independent learning.

Next step

State the conditional preference explicitly in the introduction and illustrate it with a more specific real or hypothetical example.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0
Scoring rule

The age-based progression is logical, paragraphs have clear purposes, and contrasting ideas are easy to follow.

Next step

Strengthen the conclusion by synthesizing the age and teacher-quality conditions instead of ending with two loosely contrasted statements.

LR

Lexical Resource

6.5
Scoring rule

Vocabulary is sufficient and sometimes flexible, though several imprecise forms and unnatural combinations reduce control.

Next step

Use more accurate academic terms and collocations, replacing choices such as “grammatical,” “dry lectures,” and “take books in a library.”

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

6.0
Scoring rule

The writer attempts varied sentence structures, but recurrent problems with word order, articles, prepositions, and clause punctuation remain noticeable.

Next step

Focus on accurate complex-sentence boundaries and natural word order, especially in sentences containing conditions or introductory phrases.

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IELTS Writing Task 2

Some people think that they can learn better by themselves than with a teacher. Others think that it is always better to have a teacher. Which one do you prefer? Use specific reasons to develop your essay.

Your response

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