Many students find it is harder to study at university or college compared to when they were in grade school.

Practice this IELTS Writing Task 2 question on IELTSX. Many students find it is harder to study at university or college compared to when they were in grade school.

Many students find it harder to study at university or college compared to grade school why is this and solutions - IELTS Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Why is this? What are some possible solutions for this problem?

Write at least 250 words.

A student's answer to this task, and the feedback on it

Written by an IELTSX user under exam conditions and published unedited and anonymously. Band 6.5 ยท 325 words.

In many parts of the world, the number of students who find learning at university more difficult than studying at school is increasing. This trend can be largely attributed to passive studying methods in school, and the academic workload in college is significantly heavier than that in school. This essay will analyze these causes and propose several viable solutions.

One major contributing factor is the passive learning methods in some high schools. Receiving knowledge only from the teacher prevents students from developing independent learning skills and curiosity about new concepts. Particularly, many students gradually lose their motivation to study, only learning when teachers provide knowledge directly. Meanwhile, the heavier academic workload also makes students feel overwhelmed and unable to cope with their studies. High schools only require students to solve basic math problems. Nevertheless, in universities, students learn complex formulas and concepts, which require them to fully understand the context. For example, schools require learners to find sin and cos of the angles from given sides. In contrast, while colleges require students to gather real numbers, students also have to input numbers into complex formulas, produce accurate results and interpret them.

To address this issue, both governmental and community-level solutions are required. The government should reform the curriculum with more interactive sessions, where students have the opportunity to actively present in front of their classes. Specifically, many international schools have applied this method to their education program. The students take on the role of a teacher to teach their classmates. Thereby, the students gain a deeper understanding of the lessons and become more familiar with independent learning. Additionally, many alumni support high school students through creating foundation courses, which help students to be exposed to university-level concepts and learning methods.

In conclusion, a greater sense of difficulty in college or university is mainly caused by the learning methods and the study volume. However, through reforming curricula and community support, this problem can be effectively mitigated.

Examiner feedback

The essay is well-structured and directly answers the prompt with relevant causes and solutions. To achieve a higher band, the candidate should aim for more sophisticated vocabulary and greater grammatical precision, particularly regarding articles and more natural collocations.

Task Response - 7

- The essay addresses all parts of the task by identifying causes (passive learning, workload) and providing solutions (curriculum reform, alumni support). - A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. - Main ideas are relevant and supported, although the example regarding 'sin and cos' vs. 'real numbers' is somewhat narrow and could be better generalized to academic rigor.

Coherence & Cohesion - 7

- Information and ideas are organized logically with a clear progression from the introduction to the conclusion. - Cohesive devices like 'Meanwhile', 'Nevertheless', and 'Specifically' are used appropriately, though 'Thereby' is slightly formal for the context. - Each paragraph presents a clear central topic: the first body paragraph focuses on causes, and the second on solutions.

Lexical Resource - 6

- The vocabulary is adequate for the task, with terms like 'passive studying methods', 'academic workload', and 'mitigated' used correctly. - There is some repetition of common words like 'students', 'knowledge', and 'learn'. - Some collocations are slightly unnatural, such as 'learners to find sin and cos' or 'creating foundation courses' in the context of high school support.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy - 6

- A mix of simple and complex sentence forms is used, but there are frequent minor errors in preposition use and article placement. - Errors such as 'find learning at university more difficult' and 'find sin and cos' are present but do not impede communication. - Punctuation is generally accurate, though some sentences are slightly repetitive in structure.

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