Task 2 is 250 words in 40 minutes, and it is worth twice as much as Task 1. Structure carries more marks here than vocabulary does.
Spend five minutes planning
Candidates who write immediately usually produce an essay that changes position halfway through. Five minutes of planning prevents that, and the examiner is specifically assessing whether your argument holds together.
The four-paragraph structure
- Introduction — rephrase the question, state your position clearly
- Body 1 — your strongest argument, with one example
- Body 2 — your second argument, or the counter-argument answered
- Conclusion — restate the position, no new information
Take a clear position
"There are advantages and disadvantages on both sides" scores poorly. Even for a discuss-both-views prompt, you must state where you stand.
Each body paragraph needs
- A topic sentence stating the point
- An explanation of why it is true
- A specific example
- A link back to the question
Useful phrases
- "There are two main reasons for this."
- "A clear example of this is…"
- "While it is true that…, the more significant issue is…"
- "For this reason, I believe…"
Common mistakes
- Memorised introductions the examiner has seen a hundred times
- Going over length — 320 words with errors scores worse than 260 clean ones
- Complex vocabulary used incorrectly
- Not answering the actual question asked, only its topic
- Leaving no time to check
Keep three minutes for checking
Look for your own known errors — articles, plurals, subject-verb agreement. You will find two or three every time, and each one costs you.
Read the question twice. "To what extent do you agree?" and "Discuss both views" require different essays, and answering the wrong one caps your score regardless of quality.
