By English Test Coach · Updated
Academic Task 2 · Advantages / disadvantages
Museum admission and public access
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: intermediate, not a predicted band.
Your writing task
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?
How to approach this question
Develop both benefits and drawbacks. If asked whether one outweighs the other, compare their importance and decide.
Advantages and disadvantages: learn how to weigh the two sides →
Worked example: Weigh museum access against the funding condition →
Access benefit: removing the permanent-collection charge could make short or repeated visits easier for people with limited budgets. Explain how returning to particular objects can support learning. Temporary exhibitions still cost money, so do not claim the proposal removes every financial barrier in the museum.
Funding drawback and judgement: the museum loses one source of income while care of the collection still costs money. Paid temporary exhibitions may contribute, but their receipts are not given. Compare wider access with the risk of reduced opening hours or care; any dependable replacement funding is a condition you propose, not a fact supplied by the task.
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 development and state whether its advantages outweigh its disadvantages if asked.
- Body 1: develop the strongest advantages with examples.
- Body 2: examine the disadvantages and compare their importance with the benefits.
- Conclusion: give an explicit overall judgement, not just a list of both sides.
Vocabulary you can use precisely
Choose language that fits your meaning. You do not need to include every phrase.
- the permanent collection
- The objects a museum holds on an ongoing basis, rather than a short visiting display.
Free access to the permanent collection could encourage residents to return more often.
- a reliable source of funding
- Money that can be depended on to support an activity over time.
The museum would need a reliable source of funding for its basic running costs.
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