Some students prefer to take a gap year between high school and university, to work or to travel. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

Traditionally, high
school
seniors will either pursue college or enter the workforce after graduation.
However
, these days, a third option -
gap
year
, where
students
defer university enrollment to travel or work – is gaining traction.
While
there are admittedly several benefits to
students
, I believe that the negative influences of
this
practice are more glaring. On the one hand, delaying tertiary education for one
year
is advantageous to a certain extent.
First,
a
gap
year
affords new graduates time to travel and immerse themselves in alien cultures, which helps them enrich their life experiences and hone practical skills.
For example
, when living abroad,
students
will have to adapt quickly to their independent lives and pick up new languages.
Second,
given that most high schools provide inadequate career guidance, spending several months looking for job opportunities or attending vocational training courses will empower
students
to identify a suitable career path.
Such
experiences would be hardly attainable if high
school
graduate immediately
enroll
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in university and become occupied with their intense study schedules.
On the other hand
, I am convinced that the aforementioned advantages pale in comparison with the significant disadvantages of having a
year
-long break prior to embarking on higher education. A major drawback is that
gap
-
year
takers may fall behind in their studies
as well as
face peer pressure, which could possibly drain their self-confidence.
In addition
to
this
, high
school
seniors can lose momentum, finding it hard to resume their education after a long time being away from formal schooling.
Last
but not least, young people who decide to work
instead
of going to college right away are unlikely to save up a lot of money or cultivate relevant job skills during their
gap
year
, which can be attributed to the fact that jobs available to high
school
leaver are mainly entry-level ones that neither get rumination well nor teach them anything substantive. In conclusion,
while
taking a
gap
year
is not without certain beneficiaries, I would contend that the given disadvantages do not make it a worthwhile path.
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task response
Make sure your essay directly addresses the question throughout, ensuring all paragraphs are relevant to the prompt.
coherence and cohesion
Introduce a wider range of linking words to improve the flow of your arguments and ideas.
task response
Provide more specific examples to strengthen your arguments, especially when discussing advantages and disadvantages. Real-world data or more distinct examples could enhance your task response.

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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