By English Test Coach · Updated
Task 2 · Benefits, drawbacks and overall judgement
Explaining both sides and deciding which side matters more are different jobs. Read the instruction first, then build the comparison your answer needs.
Work through original tool-library and museum-access examples, then six practice questions. These are teaching materials for Academic and General Training Task 2, not recalled exam questions or examiner-scored essays.
“What are the advantages and disadvantages of residents borrowing household tools from a community library?”
This original variation asks you to explain benefits and drawbacks. Develop both; do not substitute a long policy proposal. A concluding summary can draw the main trade-off together without forcing an unrequested winner.
Some communities provide libraries where residents can borrow tools and household equipment instead of buying their own. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Here you must also decide whether the benefits are more significant overall. The reader should understand your answer and why the comparison supports it.
Other wordings can add a separate instruction, such as asking for your opinion or the reasons for a change. The mixed-instruction examples show why one essay label cannot replace reading the whole question.
Two minor benefits do not automatically outweigh one serious drawback. Give the reader a basis for your comparison. Useful questions include who is affected, how substantial the effect is, how often it occurs and whether a reasonable safeguard changes it.
A resident may need a drill for a short, occasional task. Borrowing it could avoid buying and storing an item that would otherwise sit unused for most of the year. The benefit is especially relevant to infrequent use and limited storage; it is less convincing for someone who needs the same tool every day.
Comparison question: is the saving substantial enough, for the users you described, to justify sharing rather than owning?
A borrowed item may be unavailable when needed, or returned in poor condition. A delay could be inconvenient; unsafe equipment is a more serious concern. Do not treat those consequences as equally minor merely because they appear in the same paragraph.
Comparison question: can dependable reservations and maintenance reduce the problem, and what cost or responsibility remains?
“For equipment used only occasionally, avoiding a purchase and freeing storage can be more valuable than having immediate access at every moment. I therefore favour tool libraries when reliable booking and maintenance are in place. Without those arrangements, the availability and condition problems would make that judgement harder to defend.”
The conclusion compares value under stated conditions. It does not claim that every shared item is safe or that a booking system eliminates all delays. A contrary judgement could also work if it develops why the remaining drawbacks matter more.
The mitigation supports your evaluation; it should not take over the essay. If most of your answer designs booking software, staffing and fines, you have moved away from comparing the development’s advantages and disadvantages.
A sentence such as “There are many pros and cons, but the pros outweigh the cons” announces a result without explaining it. Name the consequence and the comparison instead.
Each sentence performs a reasoning job. Avoid memorising them as a paragraph that could be attached to any topic. See the precise vocabulary lesson for keeping scope and meaning accurate.
Our four-day working-week question keeps total hours unchanged. Calling it a reduction in working hours would manufacture a benefit that the task does not provide. Compare fewer journeys and a free day with longer individual shifts instead. The same scope check applies before weighing any other proposal.
A town museum plans to remove admission charges for its permanent collection while continuing to charge for temporary exhibitions. Do the advantages of this arrangement outweigh the disadvantages?
This proposal has two parts: free entry to the permanent collection and continued charges for temporary exhibitions. An essay about making every museum display free changes the question. An essay that treats the remaining ticket income as enough to pay every bill adds information the question never supplies.
A resident could return to particular objects without paying for another visit to the permanent collection. Explain why that matters: short, repeated visits may support learning when a family cannot afford frequent admission fees. Avoid jumping from free entry to a claim that everyone will attend or learn equally.
Caring for objects and staffing galleries still cost money. Temporary-exhibition tickets retain one income stream, but the question gives no receipts or costs. If the lost income leads to reduced opening hours, the policy could weaken the access it is meant to improve.
“I favour the arrangement if basic running costs have dependable support: recurring access to the permanent collection would then be a stronger benefit than charging for every visit. Without that support, shorter opening hours could make the financial drawback more serious.”
This is a reasoned condition, not evidence that support already exists. The complete original answer develops that qualified position. You could instead judge the uncertainty too serious, provided you still explain the access benefit and compare its importance with the risk.
“All exhibitions will be free, so everyone can learn about history. The museum will lose no money because special exhibitions will pay all its bills.”
Rewrite this extract so it preserves the two admission rules, explains a plausible benefit and acknowledges what is unknown about income.
“Free access to the permanent collection could let residents make repeated learning visits. Temporary exhibitions would still charge admission and could contribute income, but those receipts are not guaranteed to replace the fees removed from the permanent collection.”
The repair corrects which displays are free, replaces “everyone” with a plausible opportunity and removes the unsupported funding guarantee. To answer the full task, add your overall judgement and explain why the benefit or drawback carries more weight.
For each question, make one note for a developed benefit, one for a developed drawback and one explaining why your preferred side carries more weight. Then compare an annotated answer.
A town museum plans to remove admission charges for its permanent collection while continuing to charge for temporary exhibitions. Do the advantages of this arrangement outweigh the disadvantages?
Weighing focus: Only the permanent collection becomes free. Weigh repeat access against income uncertainty without assuming temporary exhibitions fund the whole museum.
A community education centre plans to move all of its evening adult courses from classrooms to live online lessons. Do the advantages of this change outweigh the disadvantages?
Weighing focus: Live lessons still have a timetable. Weigh the removal of travel against the effects of moving every course online.
In many countries, working from home is becoming increasingly common. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Weighing focus: Weigh recurring travel savings against the support a new employee might lose. Explain any conditions on your judgement.
Some employers allow staff to complete the same weekly working hours over four longer days instead of five shorter days. Do the advantages of this arrangement outweigh the disadvantages?
Weighing focus: The total weekly hours stay the same. Compare the value of a free day with the effects of longer shifts.
More medical consultations are taking place by video or telephone instead of in person. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Weighing focus: Keep the argument within suitable appointments; convenience alone cannot establish suitability for every consultation.
Some communities provide libraries where residents can borrow tools and household equipment instead of buying their own. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Weighing focus: Compare occasional-use savings with availability and maintenance problems rather than counting items in two lists.
Try a short revision: keep the tool-library benefits but change the situation so reservations and maintenance are unreliable. Write a new concluding judgement. Explain why the balance changes instead of simply swapping “advantages” and “disadvantages”. Check your reasoning against the Task Response exercise.
Plan and write the tool-library answer in the free workspace, then compare the original sample. Public AI assessment is paused; the planner, timer, word count and study resources remain available without an account. The rule-based demo is not an AI score.