In the modern world, there is a movement away from written exams to more practical assessment. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this trend.
Sample Response
The written exam was the only possible evaluation method in the past and thanks to the technological advancements for numerous other techniques to assess a student's academic performance nowadays. It is clearquite obvious that schools and other educational and training institutions are opting for a combination of different assessment methods and this shift has both advantages and disadvantagesdemerits, which I shall examine in this essay. To start with the advantages,To start with the advantages, practical approaches to evaluating students not only consider the overall learning and understanding of a student but also the accuracy and depth of their knowledge. For instance, in a paper based exam, a student can easily memorise the answers and perform well in a written testin written test, but; but when he is asked to demonstrate his knowledgedemonstrate the knowledge his knowledge in a lab, his ability to memorise answersmemorise-and-answer ability would be of little helphelp him a little. In practical exams, students who have genuinely learned the materialreally learned the lessons would pass with flying colours. Furthermore, assessment methods like interviews, group assignments, presentations and lab experiments prepare pupilspupil to face the challenges in professional life. Turning to the disadvantages of practical assessment, many students can cheat during the evaluation processcheat the evaluation process and pass the exam with little dedication to studyinga little devotion to study. For instance, a recent survey conducted amongon students in five different colleges revealed that students prefer group assignments, online presentations and lab experiments to written examslab experiments than written exam as they need to study more for the latterlater one. On top of that, sometimes, teachers favour particular students and mark some students poorly due to personal reasons and the authority has little scope to reassesslittle to do to reassess this marking scheme at a later date. To conclude, genuine assessment of a student is quite an essential task for the schools and a combination of evaluation processesprocess should be implemented. Practical assessment offers many benefits and subsequently preparesprepare students for the future challenges in both academic and professional environmentsenvironment.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response’s strongest feature is its relevant coverage of both the educational and professional benefits of practical assessment as well as possible drawbacks. Its main limitation is uneven control of expression and organisation, with the entire discussion presented as one block and several ideas supported by imprecise reasoning. The highest-priority improvement is to separate the argument into purposeful paragraphs and explain each disadvantage more convincingly.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses both advantages and disadvantages with relevant ideas, though some supporting reasoning is not fully convincing.
Develop the cheating and biased-marking disadvantages with clearer mechanisms and more credible supporting examples.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument follows a recognisable sequence and uses clear signposting, but the lack of paragraph breaks weakens organisation.
Divide the essay into an introduction, separate advantages and disadvantages paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Lexical Resource
There is a good range of education-related vocabulary, but inaccurate collocations and word forms recur.
Use more precise combinations such as “written examination,” “students,” and “assessment process,” and check word forms carefully.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied sentence structures, but recurring agreement, article, and construction errors reduce control.
Proofread complex sentences for subject-verb agreement, articles, and complete clause structures before finalising the response.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In the modern world, there is a movement away from written exams to more practical assessment. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this trend.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.