You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Many people think that students who go to university directly from school benefit less and can contribute less to their courses than those who travel or do jobs before they start their university education. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer
In today’s modern world, many students plan to go to university immediately after they finish school. However, some people assert that it would be more beneficial if they can go on a trip or start on working for a certain period of time before attending university courses. Therefore, it is important for us to establish the positive and negative impacts of this argument before we reach a reasonable conclusion.
Undoubtedly, those who wish to widen their view by travelling or working will certainly have more experience and are more knowledgeable than others who go to university after they finish school. When they travel to other countries, they are being exposed to a new environment with different lifestyles, thus they will probably learn the cultures and traditions from the locals. They may be more open-minded and have higher adaptability than others. Besides, working may benefit them by opening up an avenue to allow them to meet a wide variety of new people every day. It is proven that they can, sooner or later, develop an excellent interpersonal skill which plays an indispensable role when they enter a university. By measuring the crucial social skill, they can interact with others more confidently.
Nevertheless, there is always another side of a coin. Travelling abroad and working for a part-time job do have detrimental side effects. One of the major drawbacks is they may be graduated from university later than their friends of the same age due to the reason that they need to experience more from travelling and working which require them to spend one or two years, or even more time. According to a recent research conducted in Malaysia, human’s interpretation and learning ability deteriorate as we get older which clearly explains that our learning progress will be slowed down if we start our tertiary education late. As a consequence, they may fail to achieve their aspirations even though they have more life experience than others.
In conclusion, I think every student has their own choice in dealing whether to start tertiary education after they finish school or to travel abroad or work for a short period so as to gain more experience before attending university. I believe they can achieve their set goals if they are willing to work hard regardless of experience and age barriers.
[ Written by – Lee Wing Qeen ]