Writing Feedback / Ielts writing - Take a gap year between high school and university. [5]

Question: Some students take a year off between school and university to work and travel. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

new experiences outside the school

Recently, the society has been seen an increasingly popular trend that young people spend a gap year between high school and university on practical activities such as seeking a job or travelling. Although this trend may bring some drawbacks, I would argue that the benefits do outweigh the drawbacks.

Putting much attention to travelling or working in a gap years, some adolescents may face difficulties when returning to the way of university. They may be diminished their knowledge that they accumulated from high school. Therefore, they will have to study harder to pass the entrance examinations of university. Besides, some youngsters abandon the pursuit of academic path since they find new passion in working or travelling, which may not guarantee for their future due to momentary passion of youngsters. For example, my nephew, who travelled oversea after finishing high schools, decided to become a tourist guide although I know that she is good at science.

Despite the disadvantages mentioned above, I still believe that adolescents should take a gap year to travel or work because of some reasons. Firstly, this can help them cultivate practical skills which are not only important for studying in universities but also useful for later life. For example, engaging in volunteer work, young people will be more mature to face the challenge on the way to college. Secondly, young people can use this year to find information about the majors of university that they intend to enroll. By participating in the presentation of university or engaging in life student, they may have more apparent view about the conditions of the university which they will choose. Finally, working in one year might help young people share financial burden of the cost in university.

In conclusion, it is undeniable that taking a year off between school and university has some negative aspects. It seems to me that the benefits of a gap year are more significant for the reasons mentioned.

Writing Feedback / Academic result in measuring people's intelligence [2]

Question: Academic achievement at school or university is the only true measure of a person's intelligence. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

intelligence and study

Answer:
The question of how to evaluate the smart ability of people remains a source of controversy. While I agree that academic results at school or university may be a manner to measure people's intelligence, I would argue that this manner is not the unique method, and there are various manners to assess the intelligent ability of people.

On the one hand, it is certain that learning result in school may be used to evaluate well people about intelligence. Subjects are designed to develop cognitive ability of students in the variety of aspects. For example, studying mathematics may help learners in logical thinking while learning literature may develop memorization and imagination capacity. Therefore, undergoing a long period learning, students may express all their clever ability. Besides, examinations could measure accurately the process learning of people. Hence, academic results might reflect the cognitive ability of people during the long time. As a result, these results should be considered as an apparent measure in evaluating people's intelligence.

On the other hand, a growing number of researches have showed that there are numerous forms of potential intelligence, which are not evaluated by academic results, and I only suggest two forms of intelligence which are leadership and physical body. Actually, a number of leaders have not good results in schools. For example, Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, who had three times failing entrance examinations of university, is still seen as an extremely clever leader thanks to the achievements in business. Another aspect is smart athletes. They play sports with thinking rather than physical strength, even in sports having strongly physical requirement such as football. Xavi Hernader, a football player, for instance, was seen as brain of Spain and FC Barcelona football teams. He is always considered as one of the most intelligent players in football although there is no guarantee that he has a good academic achievement.

Admittedly, the academic result may be considered as a necessary measure to assess intelligent ability of people. However, from my perspective, we need a comprehensive assessment on the results which they gain in their life.