General Task 2 · Causes and evaluation
Starting the school day later
An original IELTS practice question with a planning route and a sample answer to learn from.
Aim for at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. Suggested practice level: advanced, not a predicted band.
Your writing task
Some secondary schools are beginning the school day later than they did in the past. Why is this change being considered, and is it a positive or negative development?
How to approach this question
Explain why the change happens and evaluate it separately. Answer both parts explicitly.
Reasons and evaluation: positive/negative and outweigh questions →
Education essays: develop ideas, test their limits and use topic vocabulary →
Reason: schools may be responding to evidence about adolescent sleep patterns or difficult early travel. Explain the proposed link without presenting an invented local statistic.
Evaluation: more rest may improve readiness to learn, while later finishing can conflict with transport, activities or family routines. Decide which effects are more manageable.
These are possible directions, not required opinions or facts to memorise. Develop your own response and check every claim against the task.
A possible plan
- Introduction: identify the change and your overall judgement.
- Body 1: explain the reasons for the change with a plausible example.
- Body 2: evaluate whether it is positive or negative, or whether its advantages outweigh its disadvantages, as the question requires.
- Conclusion: answer both the causes question and the evaluation question.
Vocabulary you can use precisely
Choose language that fits your meaning. You do not need to include every phrase.
- sleep schedule
- The usual times at which a person sleeps and wakes.
A later start may fit some teenagers' sleep schedule more closely.
- knock-on effect
- An indirect consequence caused by an earlier change.
A later finish could have a knock-on effect on sports and family travel.
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