IELTS essay, topic: Schools should select students by their academic abilities, agree or disagree?
Some people think that schools should select students according to
their academic abilities, while others believe that it is better to have
students with different abilities studying together. Discuss both views
and state your own opinion.
Some people contend that mixed ability classes are more beneficial for
children’s development than streaming them on the basis of judgement
about their academic abilities. However, from my perspective, I disagree
with this contention.
Admittedly, mixed ability classes provide a better environment for
children’s all-round development. In such classes, children with
different abilities study together and in turn they can learn from one
another. From example, a student, who is good at academic study but weak
in dancing or painting, can learn how to dance or paint form his peers.
In this sense, mixed ability classes allow students to develop their
abilities in different subjects instead of only academic abilities.
Despite the argument above, I believe streaming students brings more
benefits to teachers and students. As for teachers, separating children
with better academic abilities from others facilitates effective
teaching. This practice helps teachers to control their students more
conveniently and easily. Compared with mixed ability in which teacher
should consider students’ differences when they are using teaching
methodologies, streaming makes this situation simpler. To be more
specific, students are at the same level of academic ability in a class,
and in turn teachers can use the same methodologies for them all. In
this way, the narrower the spread of ability in the class, the more
convenient the teaching can be.
On top of this, steaming enables students to learn in an effective way.
According to students’ different abilities, they are taught in different
ways that are more suitable for them. In the top streams, students use
more difficult materials, therefore, they can learn more. In sharp
contrast, teachers can explain the material more slowly to those in
bottom streams. Under this circumstance, students with different
academic abilities can study effectively and efficiently.
In the final analysis, mixed ability classes are beneficial for
students’ versatile development, but in my opinion, segregating students
based on different academic ability is better for both teachers and
students.
The writer presented a balanced discussion of the topic, effortlessly
delivered in a form of a fluent, well-written IELTS essay. The
arguments and reasoning are laid out in a coherent, logical way. A wide
range of vocabulary is used in this work. There are very few spelling
errors that could have been caught in an additional round of
proofreading (mouse over the words underlined in blue shows
corrections). Keep up the good work! Overall, this essay seems worthy of
IELTS Band 8.
