Education problem solution IELTS Task 2 Writing

Which opening sentence would get the highest mark?

Woman looking at post it notes in window

Question: Funding for programmes like music is difficult to find. What problems can this cause, and how should it be solved?

Money for sonic studies is difficult to procure.
It’s hard to find money, but it’s important for music.
Music lessons form an integral part of education. th

The third is clearly best, but why? You can see that the first uses procure, which means get, but is it really important to say the same thing as the question?

Actually, it makes no sense. You should say something that introduces YOUR particular essay and reasons because it’s an introduction to your essay. Examiners want to know what you think, not what the question said.

Question:

Many students are losing motivation and performing poorly in schools around the world.

What are the main problems this creates for individuals and society and what can be done to address them?

The declining motivation and academic performance among students worldwide has emerged as a critical educational crisis that threatens not only individual futures but also societal progress and economic competitiveness.

As social media and gaming become increasingly addictive, and work becomes highly competitive, young people are turning to escapism. This is a way of avoiding the pressures of the real world.

I see a lot of advice online about how to write paragraphs. However, most of it is cursory. *cursory means `the basics’.

*Use cursory in your essays. I’ll give you examples at the bottom of the page.

So, these teachers are giving you basic advice but not tea

Essay Structure

How would you structure this essay?

Structure 1

Introduction

Body 1 Problem 1 and 2.

Body 2 Solution 1 and 2.

Conclusions

Structure 2

Introduction

Body 1 Problem~Solution

Body 2 Problem~Solution

Conclusion

I normally prefer 2 because you are focused on one issue rather than jumping around. It is easier to go in depth and get TR marks.

Task Response and Coherence and Coherence

I’ll walk you through the thinking.

What does the question want me to do?
Say what the problems are for society
Say what the problems are for individuals
Right away, I’m 90% sure this will be structure 2
Problems has an s so I’ll do two (not 3) problems for each.
Double check the statement: losing motivation & performing poorly. I’m checking because these are the causes of the problems I’ll describe. A
There are two causes and I’ll give a problem each one causes in b1 and b2.
Structure
b1: problem 1: losing motivation / problem~individuals. (Without motivation to study, young people lack critical thinking skills (next, you need to say the consequences. Eg: and, this impacts decision making at work and home poor. (You can add, this often leads to poor life choices). Or (, leading to poor life choices.). Solution: “In order solve the problem, we need to identify the cause which I believe is outdated and irrelevant subject matter. Subjects must be presented in a way that shows that they can improve students’s lives significantly. This can include real world application of critical thinking skills.
B1: Cause 2 poor performance / problem~ society. “Further, these issues impact society as problems like drug abuse and theft. They also lower the number of skilled workers which detracts from research and innovation. In time, this leads to economic decline.

This thinking pattern makes sure you carefully put all parts of the question in to your answer.

If you don,t you are likely to lost TR and Org marks.

Do all of this thinking before you write your first sentence.

This way will help you connect the sentence to the thesis and paragraphs closely.

This influences your cohesion mark and makes your ideas easy to follow.

Thesis Statement

Which thesis is better?

The thesis should be clear by now.

“This essay will outline the problems low study motivation cause many problems like poor thinking skills and social problems.

This essay will show that low study motivation causes a decline in critical thinking skills and harms a county’s progress financially.

“This essay will outline the problems low study motivation cause many problems for individuals and society.”

The thesis should say your opinion and two reasons.

This way, the examiner will understand that you will directly answer each part of the question.

Your essay organisation will also be clear.

Body 1 plan.

Right now you have a reason and example, but you also need to explain them. A paragraph plan will help you think through how you will explain.

Once this is done, we can think about grammar and vocabulary.

As you can see, we focused on the TR and Organisation first. Once the paragraph is organised, we can write.

Paragraph Planning

I’ll review my reason now.

b1: cause 1: losing motivation / problem~individuals. (Without motivation to study, young people lack critical thinking skills (next, you need to say the consequences. Eg: and, this impacts decision making at work and home poor. (You can add, this often leads to poor life choices). Or (, leading to poor life choices.).

This is my thinking/ paragraph plan.

I did this in my mind.

I’m thinking about how I will explain my reason before I write.

Body 1

problem 1: losing motivation / problem~individuals. (Without motivation to study, young people lack critical thinking skills this impacts decision making at work and home poor. this often leads to poor life choices). Solution: “In order solve the problem, we need to identify the cause which I believe is outdated and irrelevant subject matter. Subjects must be presented in a way that shows that they can improve students’s lives significantly. This can include real world application of critical thinking skills.

So, I know what I want to do. I just need to put a topic sentence on it and write it out.

Paragraph Topic Sentence

Most ielts teachers tell you to start the essay with a topic sentence. You can, or you can write a background sentence. This is common practice in academia.

You can put the background and topic sentences together. This gives you a compound sentence which boosts grammar marks.

Compound Sentence: topic sentence

Social media apps are designed to spike dopamine and create addiction, so this paragraph will show that they lower critical thinking skills causing poor decision making and that this can be mitigated by reducing app time.

I have changed the question.

Plan and write the essay and submit it.

I will see how you did and show you what is needed to make a strong essay.

Question: Many students are using AI to write.

What are the main problems this creates for individuals and society,

and what measures can be taken to improve the situation?

In further pages, we will go deeper into understanding IELT’s and university’s requirements.

IELTS problem/solution mini-checklist

Checklist

Do you know what the question is asking you to do?
Do you have a structure that has a place for each question requirement.
Did you organise your paragraph before writing?

IELTS expectations checklist

Task response: “The prompt is appropriately addressed and explored in depth.” *you now have a system to check this.
Organisation: “Paragraphing is skilfully managed.” You have a system for paragraphing: do check the pages for the other

Check your skill

Why does this paragraph not answer checklist points 1 and 2?

What problems does traffic cause to pedestrians and what can be done to solve them?

Traffic is a very serious problem. There are many cars and they cause pollution. This essay strongly agrees that traffic is bad because people cannot get home and we should use public transport.

The traffic is very bad in big cities and I feel that people cannot drive their cars home. They will spend many hours in traffic, and there is a lot of pollution that drivers are exposed to. The government should create more public transport lanes. Also, the cars stop bicycles from riding safely. Then, few people will cycle. They should charge cars for using the roads.

I think you can see the issue right?

Question
Many students are using AI to write essays and reports. What problems is this causing and how can they be solved?

Model Band 7+ Essay Problem Solution

Question: Many students are using their mobile phones in class. What problems does this cause and what solutions can you offer?

*This is my own answer, not AI.

Mobile phones are highly addictive, and students love to communicate with them during class. This essay will argue that using mobile phones in class disrupts thinking patterns causing lower marks and that phones students should be given free time to use them during class.

Most subjects require students to move into deep thinking which happens after 10-15 minutes, and when mobile phone notifications disrupt this, learning remains surface. (I originally wrote ‘work quality drops’, but I changed it because this is too general and it’s jumping to the end of the situation rather than describing the steps to get there.) This shallow level of learning generally remains throughout the class, or at least, it takes another 15 minutes of a short class to return to deep learning. As a result, students’ quality of work can drop, achievement and self-confidence lower and pressure on catching up, often alone, in the evening, intensifies. By setting a standard time when mobile phones are allowed, mid-lesson, students are less likely to be randomly interrupted. However, it is important for students to turn off notifications.

Vocabulary: