It is becoming increasingly popular to have a year off between finishing school and going to university. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

It is true that there has been a rise in the number of people taking a
year
long break after completing school and before joining the university. The main advantage of
this
trend is that it gives sufficient
time
for a teenager to learn new skills and the main drawback is that
this
can
also
be a waste of
time
if it is not planned carefully. Taking a
year
off after the completion of school has several merits. To commence with, it gives an individual enough amount of
time
to concentrate on enhancing his skills.
In addition
, an adolescent can invest
this
time
to prepare for engineering or medical entrance examinations which are difficult to clear without adequate preparation.
For instance
, as per recent research by the Times, only 20% of the students who cleared the IIT exam in 2018 were freshers and the rest of the students were one-
year
droppers.
Moreover
, a student can master skills like communication, foreign languages and
also
learn sports
such
as cricket, tennis, football and several others in
this
one
year
. On the flip side, the main disadvantage of
this
phenomenon is that if planning is not done properly,
then
this
can be just wastage of the
time
.
Instead
of taking a
year
gap after finishing school, a person can take admission in college and get a job after completing his college studies.
As a result
,
this
will save him one
year
and will
also
help him to gain hands-on work experience which is more vital than theoretical knowledge.
For example
, a recent study revealed that 60% of the students who took a
year
off before joining university had done nothing fruitful and
thus
it was a total waste of
time
. In conclusion,
although
the decision to take
time
off before enrolling into a college is good for those who are very serious about their career, proper planning is essential to avoid wastage of
time
.

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Include an introduction and conclusion

A conclusion is essential for IELTS writing task 2. It is more important than most people realise. You will be penalised for missing a conclusion in your IELTS essay.

The easiest paragraph to write in an essay is the conclusion paragraph. This is because the paragraph mostly contains information that has already been presented in the essay – it is just the repetition of some information written in the introduction paragraph and supporting paragraphs.

The conclusion paragraph only has 3 sentences:

  • Summary
  • Restatement of thesis
  • Prediction or recommendation

Example:

To summarize, a robotic teacher does not have the necessary disciple to properly give instructions to students and actually works to retard the ability of a student to comprehend new lessons. Therefore, it is clear that the idea of running a classroom completely by a machine cannot be supported. After thorough analysis on this subject, it is predicted that the adverse effects of the debate over technology-driven teaching will always be greater than the positive effects, and because of this, classroom teachers will never be substituted for technology.

Start your conclusion with a linking phrase. Here are some examples:

  • In conclusion
  • To conclude
  • To summarize
  • Finally
  • In a nutshell
  • In general

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Essentional vocabulary list for IELTS Writing 7+

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Topic Vocabulary:
  • gap year
  • work experience
  • internships
  • traveling
  • life experiences
  • personal development
  • independent
  • self-reliant
  • educational progress
  • graduation timeline
  • financial burden
  • academic momentum
  • structured academic environment
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