IELTS Writing Task 2 essay with model answer

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic

Formal exams are used to assess students at the end of each semester in many countries. Why are these exams used by schools and university? What other types of assessment are possible?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

Over the decades, traditional standardised tests have been the most common way to examine students. This essay will illustrate the reasons due to which academic institutions prefer these tests; furthermore, this essay will also shed some light on other ways to test students.

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Standardised test are chosen by the education board because they are easy to conduct and are reliable. Schools can easily organise written examinations in the classrooms once or twice a year and examine hundreds of students at the same time. Moreover, as these exams are supervised by untheorised professionals, students have no chance to cheat. Recent study taken in India has shown that 85% schools are still opting for traditional methods to examine students. Therefore, it goes without saying that formal tests are one of the simple and efficient ways to assess students.

However, in recent days, a number of experts have started proposing that can also be tested using other promising ways, such as group assignment and oral presentation. By assigning group tasks, teachers can examine students' expertise related to subject as well as their ability to work in a team. Moreover, students can also be given an academic topic, for which they have to research; and at the end of semester, they need to present it in front of a large audience. As a result, students can escape their stage fear. Recently, it has been seen that schools and universities tend to allocate out of overall students' assessment to one group assignment and one presentation in each semester. Hence, these new assessment methods are absolutely superior.

To recapitulate, this essay discussed that formal  tests are still preferred by schools and universities because of their simplicity and efficiency,  but other modern assessment methods, such as team assignments and oral presentation have potential benefits too.

Total Words: 280

Task Achievement: 8

Coherence & Cohesion: 8

Lexical resources: 8

Grammar: 8

Overall Score: Band 8