TOEFL - either you choose the same job as your parents do or enter a new field

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

It is better for children to choose jobs that are similar to their parents' jobs than
to choose jobs that are very different from their parents' jobs.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

different experience thus different choices

When an individual gradually grows up, he/she can't eacape from facing the issue--finding a job. Job choosing will be one of the most important decision in a person's life. Somebody may say that it will be good for people if they choose the job in their parents' fields while others may say that people should fight for a promising life in a totally new field. As far as I am concerned, both of them have unique advantages and neither choice can surpass the other one.

On one hand, people will have a higher start in their parents' fields. If an individual choose the job which assembles their parents', he/she will be immersed in this specifically professional environment at a very young age. It will give them a sense about the path of the job. What's more, they can also get extra resources--like social network or knowledge which are accumulated by their parents. For instane, my parents are college school teachers. So they wish me to find an academic position in the future. When I decide to go into the same field as they do, I start to prepare for that directly. They teach me how to read and write papers and take me to join professional meetings when I was in high school. So when I entered in university, I begin to do research at the very beginning. And I get tutorial from their colleges. It paves the way for me to continue my PhD degree in the future.

On the other hand, choosing a totally new field can make people grow fast. The people who try to do so are like a poineer. They need to face a totally foreign field: without accumulation of ant network; they need to overcome a series of problems and fight for that by their own hands. For example, one of my best friends whose parents are also specialized in academic field. However, she chooses to learn Fine Art in college. It is totally a reversed fields than her parents'. She behaves activitlly in college to social and seek the chance to hold a personal exhibition. In the end, all her hard work has been paid of and she tells me that she feels like growing so much during the college life.

To conclude, either you choose the same job as your parents do or enter a new field, it will both benefit an individual. Two people will have different experience once they have made different choices. We can not say that one of the choice will be less beneficial than the other.

Fan, since you did not accurately respond to the prompt provided, you will get a failing score of 1 with this essay. The specific reason for this score is because you have a questionable responsiveness to the task. Why is it questionable? Let's look at the prompt requirement. You were asked to agree or disagree with the statement provided. In your thesis statement and response, you chose to discuss the advantages of each choice. There is a big difference between the prompt instruction you were given and the discussion statement that you provided. The proper response to this in the opening statement should have been:

There is a discussion as to whether or not it is better for children opt to be employed in occupations nearly the same as their parents or if they should take on work that is the exact opposite of their parents job. I believe that (state your opinion). I will be defending my opinion in this essay using reasons and examples based upon my personal opinion and public perception.

After stating your opinion in the opening statement, the rest of your essay should only discuss that opinion and nothing more. The instructions do not require you discuss both opinions in your essay. Only your personal opinion. Since that is not what you did, then you did not accurately respond to the prompt.

It is because of this mistake in your discussion method that you got a failing score with this essay. The TOEFL is more unforgiving of prompt response mistakes. There is only one criteria to base your scoring on, your English comprehension skills. When you prove to not have a proper understanding of the prompt, you will immediately fail the test.

TOEFL does not expect you to be REALLY creative on writing if I'm correct.. So there is a huge risk writing in the neutral position, which means you must agree or disagree. Also, you need to keep your eyes on how logical your essay is and making no grammatical errors. Come back to the writing, I can hardly find major grammatical errors there. Read how others write and make sure to follow the format. You actually write better than I do so huge improvement is waiting for you. I wish you better luck next time.

@Holt
Thanks a lot!

As for my essay, I was going to express the opinion that both choices have pros; we can't say choosing this will be better than choosing that.

So if I mention that I don't agree with this statement in the opening paragraph, will that be better?