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Task 2 · Discussion (both views) · Education

Mixed-ability classes or setting by ability

A schooling discussion essay in which the band 9 answer distinguishes what streaming does from how schools actually use it.

The question

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.

Some schools teach children of all abilities together in the same class, while others divide students into groups according to how well they perform. Discuss both approaches and give your own opinion.

A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.

What separates the three answers

The 6.5 weighs faster progress against hurt feelings, the 7.5 examines what each system does to teaching, and the 9 shows the harm comes from how groups are assigned rather than from grouping itself.

The three answers

Band 6.5

259 words (the task asks for at least 250)

The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.

The answer

In many countries the schools have the different systems for the teaching. In some schools all of the students study together in one class, but in other schools the students are divided by the their level4. Both of the systems have the advantages and the disadvantages, and I will discuss the both of them in this essay.

Firstly, the supporters of the mixed classes say that this system is more fair. All of the children have the same opportunity and nobody feel that he is stupid. Moreover, the weak students can learn from the strong students, because they sit together and they help each other1. Also, in the real life we must work with the different kinds of people, so the mixed class prepare the children for the future society. Also the teacher can give the special attention to the students who have the difficulty in some subject.

Secondly, other people prefer to divide the students by the ability. They say that the teacher can teach better when all of the students have the same level. If the class is mixed, the strong students become bored and the weak students cannot follow the lesson. Therefore nobody is happy.3 In addition, the clever students can go faster and maybe they will win the international competitions for their country.

In conclusion, the mixed class is better for the equality but the divided class is better for the results. Personally I think that the schools should divide the students only in the mathematics and the science2, and teach the other subjects together.

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Task response

    “the weak students can learn from the strong students, because they sit together and they help each other”

    The central claim for mixed teaching, supported only by the observation that the children are in the same room. This is the point that most needed developing.

  2. 2. Task response

    “the schools should divide the students only in the mathematics and the science”

    A precise recommendation with no argument behind it. Nothing earlier in the essay distinguishes these subjects from any other.

  3. 3. Coherence and cohesion

    “Therefore nobody is happy.”

    'Therefore' announces a deduction from a single preceding sentence. The connector is stronger than the reasoning it marks.

  4. 4. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “the students are divided by the their level”

    A definite article stacked on a possessive determiner. A small, characteristic slip that recurs elsewhere as 'the both of them'.

One honest caveat

Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.

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