essay practice questions

IELTS Preparation with Liz: Free IELTS Tips and Lessons, 2024

• Test Information FAQ
• Band Scores
• IELTS Candidate Success Tips
• Computer IELTS: Pros & Cons
• How to Prepare
• Useful Links & Resources
• Recommended Books
• Writing Task 1
• Writing Task 2
• Speaking Part 1 Topics
• Speaking Part 2 Topics
• Speaking Part 3 Topics
• 100 Essay Questions
• On The Day Tips
• Top Results
• Advanced IELTS

100 IELTS Essay Questions

Below are practice IELTS essay questions and topics for writing task 2. The 100 essay questions have been used many times over the years. The questions are organised under common topics and essay types. IELTS often use the similar topics for their essays but change the wording of the essay question.

In order to prepare well for writing task 2, you should prepare ideas for common topics and then practise applying them to the tasks given (to the essay questions). Also see model essays and tips  for writing task 2.

Below you will find:

• Essay Questions By Topic
• Essay Questions by Essay Type

Please also note that my new Grammar E-book is now available in my store along with my Ideas for Essay Topics E-book and Advanced Writing Lessons. To visit store, click here: Liz’s Store

1) Common IELTS Essay Questions

IELTS practice essay questions divided by topic. These topics have been reported by IELTS students in their tests. Essay questions have been recreated as accurately as possible.

• Art   (5 essay questions)
• Business & Money   (17 essay questions)
• Communication & Personality   (20 essay questions)
• Crime & Punishment   (12 essay questions)
• Education   (17 essay questions)
• Environment   (12 essay questions)
• Family & Children   (8 essay questions)
• Food & Diet (13 essay questions)
• Government (6 essay questions)
• Health   (9 essay questions)
• Housing, Buildings & Urban Planning (8 essay questions)
• Language (6 essay questions)
• Leisure (1 essay question)
• Media & Advertising   (12 essay questions)
• Reading  (5 essay questions)
• Society   (10 essay questions)
• Space Exploration (3 questions)
• Sport & Exercise   (6 essay questions)
• Technology  (6 essay questions)
• Tourism and Travel   (11 essay questions)
• Transport  (7 essay questions)
• Work (17 essay questions)

2) IELTS Essay Questions by Essay Type 

There are 5 main types of essay questions in IELTS writing task 2 (opinion essays, discussion essay, advantage/disadvantage essays, solution essay and direct question essays). Click on the links below to see some sample essay questions for each type.

• Opinion Essay Questions
• Discussion Essay Questions
• Solution Essay Questions
• Direct Questions Essay Titles 
• Advantage / Disadvantage Essay Questions

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Ielts model essay -two questions essay type, ielts bar chart of age groups 2024, ielts topic: urban planning, ielts listening transcripts: when and how to use them, 2024 ielts speaking part 1 topics, vocabulary for government topic.

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100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises

by Joe Bunting | 50 comments

Want to become a better writer? Perhaps you want to write novels, or maybe you just want to get better grades in your essay writing assignments , or maybe you'd like to start a popular blog .

If you want to write better, you need practice. But what does a writing practice actually look like? In this post, I'm going to give you everything you need to kick off your writing practice and become a better writer faster.

What Is Writing Practice?

Writing practice is a method of becoming a better writer that usually involves reading lessons about the writing process, using writing prompts, doing creative writing exercises , or finishing writing pieces, like essays, short stories , novels , or books . The best writing practice is deliberate, timed, and involves feedback.

How Do You Practice Writing?

This was the question I had when I first started The Write Practice in 2011. I knew how to practice a sport and how to practice playing an instrument. But for some reason, even after studying it in college, I wasn't sure how to practice writing.

I set out to create the best writing practice I could. The Write Practice is the result.

I found that the best writing practice has three aspects:

Deliberate . Writing whatever you feel like may be cathartic, but it's not an effective way to become a better writer or build your writing skills. You'll get better faster by practicing a specific technique or aspect of the writing process each time you sit down to write.

This is why we have a new lesson about the writing process each day on The Write Practice, followed by a practice prompt at the end so you can put what you learned to use immediately.

Timed . It's no secret writers struggle with focus. There are just too many interesting distractions—Facebook, email, Kim Kardashian's Instagram feed (just kidding about that last one, sort of)—and writing is just too hard sometimes.

Setting a timer, even for just fifteen minutes, is an easy and effective way to stay focused on what's important.

This is why in our writing practice prompt at the end of each post we have a time limit, usually with a link to an online tool egg timer , so you can focus on deliberate practice without getting distracted.

Feedback . Getting feedback is one of the requirements to deliberately practice writing or any other craft. Feedback can look like listening to the reactions of your readers or asking for constructive criticism from editors and other writers.

This is why we ask you to post your writing practice after each lesson, so that you can get feedback from other writers in The Write Practice community. It's also why we set up The Write Practice Pro community , to provide critique groups for writers to get feedback on each finished piece of writing.

Our 100+ Best Creative Writing Practice Exercises and Lessons

Now that you know how we practice writing at The Write Practice, here are our best writing practice lessons to jumpstart your writing skills with some daily writing exercises, for beginner writers to even the most expert writers:

All-Time, Top 10 Writing Lessons and Exercises

These ten posts are our most viewed articles to boost your writing practice:

1. What is Plot? The 6 Elements of Plot and How to Use Them . Great stories use similar elements in wildly different ways to build page-turning stories. Click here to read what they are and learn how to start using them !

2. Top 100 Short Story Ideas . Here are over a hundred writing prompts in a variety of genres. If you need ideas for your next story, check this out!

3. How To Use Neither, Nor, Or, and Nor Correctly . Even good writers struggle figuring out when to use neither/nor and either/or. In this post, our copy-queen Liz Bureman settles the confusion once and for all. Click to continue to the writing exercise

4. Ten Secrets To Write Better Stories . How does Pixar manage to create such great stories, year after year? And how do you write a good story? In this post, I distill everything I've learned about how to write a good story into ten tips. Click to continue to the writing exercise

5. 35 Questions To Ask Your Characters From Marcel Proust . To get to know my characters better, I use a list of questions known as the Proust Questionnaire, made famous by French author, Marcel Proust. Click to continue to the writing exercise

6. How a Scene List Can Change Your Novel-Writing Life . Creating a scene list changed my novel-writing life, and doing the same will change yours too. Includes examples of the scene lists from famous authors. Click to continue to the writing exercise

7. Why You Need to be Using the Oxford Comma . Most people I've met have no idea what the Oxford comma is, but it's probably something that you have used frequently in your writing. Click to continue to the writing exercise

8. Six Surprising Ways to Write Better Interview Questions.  The interview is the most-used tool in a journalist's bag. But that doesn't mean novelists, bloggers, and even students can't and don't interview people. Here's how to conduct a great interview. Click to continue to the writing exercise

9. Why You Should Try Writing in Second Person . You've probably used first person and third person point-of-view already. But what about second person? This post explains three reasons why you should try writing from this point-of-view. Click to continue to the writing exercise

10. The Secret to Show, Don't Tell . You've heard the classic writing rule, “Show. Don't Tell.” Every writing blog ever has talked about it, and for good reason. Showing, for some reason, is really difficult. Click to continue to the writing exercise.

12 Exercises and Lessons To Become a Better Writer

How do you become a better writer? These posts share our best advice:

• Want to Be a Better Writer? Cut These 7 Words
• What I Mean When I Say I Am A Writer
• How to Become a Writer: 3 Simple Steps
• 72% of Writers Struggle With THIS
• 7 Lies About Becoming a Writer That You Probably Believe
• 10 Questions to Find Your Unique Writing Voice
• The Best Writing Book I’ve Ever Read
• The Best Way to Become a Better Writer
• The Creative Writer’s Toolkit: 6 Tools You Can’t Write Without
• Should You Write More or Write Better: Quantity vs Quality
• How to Become a Better Writer in One, Simple Step
• 11 Writing Tips That Will Change Your Life

6 Lessons and Exercises from Great Writers

If you want to be a writer, learn from the great writers who have gone before you:

• 23 Essential Quotes from Ernest Hemingway About Writing
• 29 Quotes that Explain How to Become a Better Writer
• 10 Lessons Dr. Seuss Can Teach Writers
• 10 Writing Tips from Ursula Le Guin
• Once Upon a Time: Pixar Prompt
• All the Pretty Words: Writing In the Style of Cormac McCarthy

12 Genre and Format Specific Writing Lessons and Exercises

Here are our best writing lessons for specific types of writing, including essays, screenplays, memoir, short stories, children's books, and humor writing:

• Writing an Essay? Here Are 10 Effective Tips
• How To Write a Screenplay: The 5 Step Process
• How to Write a Great Memoir: a Complete Guide
• How to Write a Short Story from Start to Finish
• How to Write a Thriller Novel
• How to Write a Children's Book
• How to Write a Love Story
• How to Write a Coming of Age Story or Book
• How to Write an Adventure Book
• 5 Key Elements for Successful Short Stories
• 4 Tips to Write a Novel That Will Be Adapted Into a Movie
• Humor Writing for People Who Aren’t Funny

14 Characterization Lessons and Exercises

Good characters are the foundation of good fiction. Here are our best lessons to create better characters:

• Character Development: How to Create Characters Audiences Will Love
• Writing Villains: 9 Evil Examples of the Villain Archetype
• How NOT to Introduce a New Character
• The Strongest Form of Characterization
• The Most Important Character Archetype
• How Do You Build A Strong Character In Your Writing?
• 75+ Antihero Examples and How to Use Them
• How to Explore Your Characters’ Motivations
• 8 Tips for Naming Characters
• The Protagonist: How to Center Your Story
• Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes: Which Is Right For Your Story?
• The Weakest Form of Characterization
• How to Write With an Accent
• How To Create a Character Sketch Using Scrivener

15 Grammar Lessons and Exercises

I talk to so many writers, some of whom are published authors, who struggle with grammar. Here are our best writing lessons on grammar:

• Is It Okay To End A Sentence With A Preposition?
• Contractions List: When To Use and When To Avoid
• Good vs. Well
• Connotation vs. Denotation
• Per Se vs. Per Say
• When You SHOULD Use Passive Voice
• When Do You Use “Quotation Marks”
• Polysyndeton and Asyndeton: Definition and Examples
• The Case Against Twilight
• Affect Versus Effect
• Stop Saying “Literally”
• What Is a Comma Splice? And Why Do Editors Hate Them?
• Intra vs. Inter: Why No One Plays Intermural Sports
• Alright and Alot: Words That Are Not Words
• The Poor, Misunderstood Semicolon

4 Journalism Lessons and Exercises

Want to be a journalist? Or even use techniques from journalism to improve your novel, essay, or screenplay? Here are our best writing lessons on journalism:

• Six Ways to Ask Better Questions In Interviews
• How Should You Interview Someone? Over Email? In Person?
• What If They Don’t Want to Talk to You?
• Eleven Habits of a Highly Effective Interviewers

16 Plot and Structure Lessons and Exercises

Want to write a good story? Our top plot and structure lessons will help:

• The Ten Types of Story and How to Master Them
• Points of a Story: 6 Plot Points Every Story Needs
• How to Shape a Story: The 6 Arcs
• 7 Keys To Write the Perfect First Line of a Novel
• The Secret to Creating Conflict
• 4 Tips to Avoid Having Your Short Story Rejected by a Literary Magazine
• 7 Steps to Creating Suspense
• 5 Elements of Storytelling
• 3 Important Rules for Writing Endings
• A Writer’s Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure
• Overcoming the Monster
• How to Satisfy Your Reader With a Great Ending
• Pow! Boom! Ka-Pow! 5 Tips to Write Fight Scenes
• The Dramatic Question and Suspense in Fiction
• How to Write a Memorable Beginning and Ending
• How to Write the Perfect First Page

6 Lessons and Exercises to Beat Writer's Block

Writer's block is real, and it can completely derail your writing. Here are six lessons to get writing again:

• How To Write Whether You Feel Like it Or Not
• This Fun Creative Writing Exercise Will Change Your Life
• When You Should Be Writing But Can't…
• What to do When Your Word Count is Too Low
• 7 Tricks to Write More with Less Willpower
• When You Don’t Know What to Write, Write About Your Insecurities

7 Literary Technique Lessons and Exercises

These writing and storytelling techniques will teach you a few tricks of the trade you may not have discovered before:

• 3 Tips to “Show, Don’t Tell” Emotions and Moods
• 3 Reasons to Write Stream of Consciousness Narrative
• 16 Observations About Real Dialogue
• Intertextuality As A Literary Device
• Why You Should Use Symbolism In Your Writing
• 6 Ways to Evoke Emotion in Poetry and Prose
• 3 Tips To Write Modern Allegorical Novels
• Symbol vs. Motif: What’s the Difference

3 Inspirational Writing Lessons and Exercises

Need some inspiration? Here are three of our most inspiring posts:

• Why We Write: Four Reasons
• You Must Remember Every Scar
• 17 Reasons to Write Something NOW

3 Publishing Blogging Lessons and Exercises

If you want to get published, these three lessons will help:

• The Secret to Writing On Your Blog Every Day
• How to Publish Your Book and Sell Your First 1,000 Copies
• How to Get Published in Literary Magazines

11 Writing Prompts

Need inspiration or just a kick in the pants to write. Try one of our top writing prompts :

• Grandfathers [writing prompt]
• Out of Place [writing prompt]
• Sleepless [writing prompt]
• Longing [writing prompt]
• Write About Yourself [writing prompt]
• 3 Reasons You Should Write Ghost Stories
• Road Trip [writing prompt]
• Morning [writing prompt]
• The Beach [writing prompt]
• Fall [writing prompt]
• How to Use Six-Word Stories As Writing Prompts

Is It Time To Begin Your Writing Practice?

It's clear that if you want to become a writer, you need to practice writing. We've created a proven process to practice your writing at The Write Practice, but even if you don't join our community, I hope you'll start practicing in some way today.

Personally, I waited  far  too long to start practicing and it set my writing back years.

How about you? Do you think practicing writing is important?  Let me know in the comments section .

Choose one of the writing practice posts above. Then, read the lesson and participate in the writing exercise, posting your work in the Pro Practice Workshop . And if you post, please give feedback to your fellow writers who also posted their practices.

Have fun and happy practicing!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

50 Comments

You have THE BEST content for writing on this blog!!

Thank you, Kristen. This made my morning. 🙂

Thanks Mitch. 🙂

I can’t remember when I started following this website. I have to look in my notebooks because that’s where I did these practices. I didn’t have access to a computer when I did them, so I wrote them out, setting the time limit. But even when I do get to a computer, I have my reservations about putting my practices on the page. even though it’s practice, I want them to be the best, almost perfect. But I know it won’t be. I’ve gotten feedback before that says so. It still gets to me that I didn’t put something together that not everyone liked. I need to get over it. After all, that is what these practices are about: to learn and improve on our craft.

I don’t know either, George, but it’s been several years. Perfectionism is something so many of us face, and it’s made worse when you don’t have a critique community as warm and encouraging as ours is. I hope you and everyone here are always willing to try something new, even if it comes out a little messed up, because you know we’ll support you and try to make you better.

What a great share! Thanks so much!

You’re so welcome, Elizabeth. Thank you for commenting.

when I ran writing classes I wrote. when I am “a member of writing classes” the teacher/leader/facilitator is NOT MY AUDIENCE and so I don’t write as well/as much. I don’t get the feedback I need from fellow students because most of them have never run their own writing projects/workshops. So many people expect you to write their story for them. I’ve actually got quite a few stories of me own. I have finally decided I like owning them. 😉

It sounds like you need a new critique group, Patience! Hope you can find a place where you get the feedback you need.

Wow! Terrific round-up of resources. 🙂

Thanks Stephanie. 🙂

Practice is necessary, period. It doesn’t matter what you want to learn. If you want to improve, practice is vital.

It’s odd. I’ve known and applied that principle for years on a variety of things. Painting. Drawing. Blogging. Gardening. Laundry.

But never writing.

Like you, I had the notion that just writing every day was all it took to improve. Why not the same level of dedication to writing?

Perhaps it’s time to change that!

I can relate, Carrie. It’s easy to confuse the craft of writing with journaling, thinking that you can just write whatever you feel like and you’ll get better, write something worth reading. The truth is that writing interesting things to read is a skill, but the good news is that you can get better at it with practice. Thanks for practicing with us! 🙂

I love these suggestions , and have set Writing Practice as my homepage so the first 15 minutes of my day is spent writing, whether its a practice or exercise here or another that is sprinkled through out this site, Thank you for all you do everyone here at The Write Practice

This is great Debra. I want to write the first 15 minutes of my day too!

I agree with Joe, Do it. Could be your to do list… ( that could lead to something else story wse later)

I love that, Debra. Such a good way to start your day.

Thanks Joe!

The best! Thank you so much for this.

You’re very welcome!

I simply LOVE all the tips and suggestions given on this blog. They are super helpful!

THANK you. We love sharing them with you. 🙂

Hi! You forgot the link to How to Write a Story a Week: A Day-by-Day Guide.

Thanks a lot for your work! This post is amazing.

It’s a great post Thiago. Definitely one of our most shared. Thanks for mentioning it! BTW here’s the link:

https://thewritepractice.com/a-story-a-week/

Wow!! There are so many exercises…. I just love it..! I am gonna really enjoy it..!

Awesome! Thank you for reading and practicing with us. 🙂

I only read halfway , My tootie is jumping all over me, and typing this is a struggle when a 3yr old wants his Toy Story movie on Youtube in this computer. Thank you for this article, will come back later to finish reading.

I know the feeling! Good luck!

Can’t wait to get stuck in with this! 🙂

Very helpful! Thank you!

I’ve just bookmarked this page. Thanks for this wonderful list.

This is awesome! So many helpful tips. I will be coming back to this often. Thanks for posting this!

Wow, so many goodies! Thank you for always providing such amazing content!!

I have enjoyed all these articles. Thank you for the help an inspiration to get my writing on its way. My creativity is boosting with confidence. Tootle loo.

Amazing contents for beginners like me Joe. I am highly inspired by your commitment. Thank you.

Hey, thanks!

Although I have only read half of thisc article, the practice exercises are excellent. Some of them are exactly what a beginning writer like myself needs. I am committing to at least try ALL of them. Thanks Joe!!

very helpful! thank you..

Amazing articles! Thanks so much for sharing!

My god this article made me love this site . You know it’s kinda hard for a beginner writer, who don’t know where to start and fixing goals, even samll ones give us a direction . A place to go , an aim for our creativity so thanks you , this community and this site. Love you all . At your pens ! 😉

Wow. This is great. I find all your posts informative, but this one is the best for me to use as a guide to get my self starting to write….Thank you.

I’m an old lady who wants to publish one more book before I die — have published several, all non-fiction, and done two under contract to a major publisher (reference books). So help me, the BIGGEST problem I have all along, is keeping track of the damned paper work and research that goes into a book!!! Yet I never ever see articles on something as simple as “How to file” — Oh I know, there’s wonderful software these days so probably I will never find a way to get paper organized — everybody will use software and do it on the computer. I’m too old for that — just one look at the learning curve for software, even putting the damned stuff into computer files is even MORE frustrating than paper!! Oh well, somehow I managed in the past to get books published, I may be able to do it one more time.

you enjoy writing more than anything else and you do indeed care to help others write. I love writing but translation from Arabic into English and English into Arabic is taking all of my time from the early hours of the morning till the evening. I will soon get all of your books in order to read them as soon as possible. One thing I am sure of. You know what you are doing very well. Hamzah

Excellent! Many useful tips. Many thanks!

Liz and Joe, I have only looked at a few exercises. Already, I am convinced that your site is one of the best sites out there. Thank your for sharing your wisdom.

Wow, these are the best lessons and exercises for writing. Actually i’m participating in a compitition this wendsday. so, i’m quite nervous and exited. this helped me a lot

Magnificent post ever I have read. This article will help me a lot to write a right way. Thank you.

i need your help to improve to become a better writer please. i think i usually commit moist of these errors and i don;t pay attention to many advices too.

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IELTS Preparation Courses

IELTS Writing Samples: 100 Practice Questions

Below you’ll find more than 100 IELTS Writing sample questions updated for 2019. Each of these essay questions has been taken from a real IELTS past paper and will give you an idea of what to expect on your exam day.

These sample questions can be separated into five main Task 2 question types:

• Opinion 
• Advantages and Disadvantages
• Problem/Cause and Solution
• Two-part questions

They are also divided amongst 13 of the most common IELTS essay topics that have appeared regularly over the last few years. IELTS is always changing, but these common topics can help you prepare more effectively if you improve your ability to use the vocabulary related to them.

These sample IELTS questions are all for Writing Task 2. For Task 1 questions, follow this link.

Feel free to print out these IELTS Writing samples and use them when you prepare for IELTS at home!

Or better yet, why not answer one of them in the comments below and gain feedback from your peers?

If you need feedback on your essays from an IELTS teacher, you can read about my essay correction service here .

Criminal Justice

Some people believe that there should be fixed punishments for each type of crime. Others, however, argue that the circumstances of an individual crime, and the motivation for committing it, should always be taken into account when deciding on the punishment.

Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Some people believe that capital punishment should never be used. Others, however, argue that it should be allowed for the most serious crimes.

Some people believe the purpose of prison is to punish, while others would argue that rehabilitation is its primary role.

Some people feel unsafe when they are in public and at home.

What are the possible causes of this and what are some possible solutions?

Some people say that excessive noise should be a criminal offence, while others say they should be free to make noise without limitation.

Some people say that the best way to improve public health is by increasing the number of sports facilities. Others, however, say that this would have little effect on public health and that other measures are required.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

In some countries levels of health and fitness are decreasing and average weights are increasing.

What do you think are the causes of these problems and what are some possible solutions?

Research indicates that the characteristics we are born with have much more influence on our personality and development than any other experiences we may have in our life.

Which do you consider to be the major influence?

Schools should do more to teach students about their health and wellbeing.

Do you agree or disagree?

More and more schools allow fast-food restaurants to sell their products to their students.

Is it a positive or negative development?

University students must pay all tuition fees, because it benefits mostly them individually, rather than the society as a whole.

Do you agree or disagree?

Some say that music, art and drama are as important as other school subjects, especially at the primary level.

Some people believe that studying history is very important and we must study the past to understand the present. Others say that it is useless and should not be studied at all.

Some teachers tend to reward students who achieve high academic results. Others, however, support and reward students that show the most improvement.

Giving lectures in halls to large numbers of people is an outdated method of teaching. With the technology available today, there is no justification for it and everything should be done online.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

In most universities students focus on specialised subjects, however, some people believe that universities should encourage students to study a wider variety of subjects.

It is generally believed that some people are born with certain talents, for instance for sport or music, and others are not. However, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good sports person or musician.

Some people think that universities should provide graduates with the knowledge and skills needed in the workplace. Others think that the true function of a university should be to give access to knowledge for its own sake, regardless of whether the course is useful to an employer.

What, in your opinion, should be the main function of a university?

Some parents think that childcare centres provide the best services for children of pre-school age. Other working parents think that family members such as grandparents will be better carers for their kids.

Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Governments should spend more money on education than on recreation and sports.

Some people believe that unpaid community service should be a compulsory part of high school programmes (for example working for a charity, improving the neighbourhood or teaching sports to younger children).

Some people think that it is better to educate girls and boys in separate schools. Others, however, believe that boys and girls benefit more from attending mixed schools.

Some people think that parents should teach children how to be good members of society. Others, however, believe that school is the place to learn this.

Universities should accept equal numbers of male and female students in every subject.

In some countries young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

Some people think that a sense of competition in children should be encouraged. Others believe that children who are taught to co-operate rather than compete become more useful adults.

Some people believe that children are given too much free time. They feel that this time should be used to do more academic work.

How do you think children should spend their free time?

In many countries schools have severe problems with student behaviour.

What do you think are the causes of this?

What solutions can you suggest?

University students should pay in full for their own education instead of the society funding their studies. The reason is that individuals tend to benefit after graduation more than society.

To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give your own opinion.

Some people believe that students should be allowed to evaluate and criticise their teachers to improve the quality of education. Others think this is disrespectful to teachers.

Discuss both views, give your opinion and include relevant examples.

Youth Crime

Nowadays many young people deliberately damage public places.

What are the causes and solutions?

Some people believe that a person’s criminal record should be removed when they reach the age of 18.

More and more young people are using drugs and alcohol and as a result, breaking the law.

What are the causes of this problem?

What are some possible solutions?

Children should never be put in prison with adults no matter how serious their crime.

Being a celebrity – such as a movie star or professional athlete – brings problems as well as benefits.

Do you think that being a celebrity has more benefits or drawbacks?

Some people feel that entertainers (e.g. film stars, pop musicians or sports stars) are paid too much money.

Which other types of job should be highly paid?

Successful sports professionals can earn much more money than people in other important jobs. Some people think this is fully justified while others think it is unfair.

Environment

There is a growing demand for fresh water nowadays and this is becoming a global problem.

Many people think that too much attention and resources are given to the protection of wild animals and birds.

Increasing the price of petrol is the best way to solve growing traffic and pollution problems.

What other measures do you think might be effective?

Nowadays we are producing more and more waste.

What are the causes of this?

What can be done to help reduce the amount of waste we produce?

Many people believe that companies and individuals should pay to clean up the environment in proportion to the amount of pollution they have produced.

Global warming is the biggest threat we face today.

Children today are too dependent on computers and electronic entertainment. It would be better to encourage them to spend more time outside playing sports and games.

Some people say that public libraries are an important public resource and should be free. Others say that they are just a waste of public money.

Some people think that excessive use of smartphones badly affects teenagers’ literacy skills.

The internet contains a lot of information that can help people, however, sometimes the information is inaccurate or wrong.

Nowadays the way many people interact with each other has changed because of technology.

In what ways has technology affected the types of relationships people make?

Has this become a positive or negative development?

Computers have made the world a better place to live in.

Some people believe that the use of mobile phones in public is as annoying as smoking and should be banned.

Most high-level positions in companies are filled by men even though the workforce in many developed countries is more than 50 percent female. Companies should be required to allocate a certain percentage of these positions to women.

Nowadays more and more people have to compete with young people for the same jobs.

What problems does this cause?

Women and men are commonly seen as having different strengths and weaknesses.

Is it right to exclude males or females from certain professions because of their gender?

As most people spend a major part of their adult life at work, job satisfaction is an important element of individual wellbeing.

What factors contribute to job satisfaction?

How realistic is the expectation of job satisfaction for all workers?

Some people think that people in senior positions alone should make decisions in a business, while others think that employees should be involved in the decision-making process too.

Nowadays many people work part- or full-time from home. Some people say that working from home has many benefits while others disagree.

For some people a high salary is the most important criterion when choosing a new job while others are satisfied if the job contributes to society.

Globalisation

In many places, traditional food has been replaced by international fast food. This has adverse effects on individuals and society.

More and more people are visiting historic sites and sometimes tourists damage these ancient sites. The number of people visiting these places should be strictly limited.

Shopping has developed from a necessary activity to a kind of entertainment.

Many small businesses are being forced to close because they are unable to compete with multinational corporations.

What problems does this cause and how can those problems be solved?

Multinational companies are becoming increasingly common in developing countries.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

Government Spending

People prefer to watch foreign films rather than locally produced ones.

Why do you think this happens? Should the government support local filmmakers financially?

Some people think that governments should invest more in public services instead of wasting money on arts such as music and paintings.

Some people believe that the government should pay for and offer to house people who lost their homes or cannot afford them.

Some people think that the government should fund music, dance and art lessons for children. Others think that they should be funded by private businesses or by children’s families.

Many people think that the government should spend money to explore outer space, while others think that it’s a waste of public money.

Some people think that mothers should spend most of their time raising their family, and therefore the government should support them financially.

Development

In some countries, the numbers of children aged 15 and younger are increasing dramatically.

What are the current and future effects of an ever-increasing population?

A recent study showed that people in developed countries are not as happy as they were before development.

What are the causes of this and what are some possible solutions?

Sometimes celebrities get invited to international aid events.

Do you think that such events deviate from their main purpose by inviting famous people?

Some people believe that richer countries should give poorer countries more financial assistance.

Some people believe that no aid should be given to developing countries that have poor human rights records.

Public Transport

Some people think that a car is the best way to travel in cities while others believe a bicycle is a better way to commute.

Many cities have serious problems with traffic congestion.

What are the causes of these problems and what are some possible solutions?

Growing numbers of cities are making their centres pedestrian-only zones.

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Some people believe that the best way to reduce traffic congestion is to increase the price of petrol.

Every year several languages die out. Some people think that it is not important because life will be easier if there are fewer languages in the world.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

It is becoming increasingly popular for people to travel to tourist destinations during public holidays.

What solutions are there to these problems?

Today, the high sales of popular consumer goods reflect the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold.

Some people believe that visitors to other countries should follow local customs and behaviour. Others disagree and think that the host country should welcome cultural differences.

At present, the media affects people’s lives significantly.

What impact does this have on society? Is it a negative or positive development?

Young people say that travelling to different countries benefits them and society.

Do you agree or disagree? Give your opinion.

These days, more fathers stay at home and take care of their children while mothers go out to work.

What are the main reasons for this? Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

IELTS Writing Sample Essays

Now that you know what kind of essay questions to expect, feel free to browse my collection of IELTS Writing Sample Essays here: Band 7+ IELTS Writing Sample Essays

However, it’s important that you use them wisely. Simply reading through them won’t improve your skills or your score. When using IELTS Writing sample essays, I always recommend following my ___ step strategy:

• Start off by reading the question – NOT the answer.
• Attempt to answer the question under exam conditions.
• Compare your letter with the sample answer.
• Improve your original answer by using some of the elements you noticed in the sample letter. Eg. how did the writer use structure, vocabulary and grammar?

If you do try this strategy, make sure to leave a comment letting me know what you thought of it. Or better yet, leave your response in the comments below!

What I Learned Correcting 10,000 IELTS Writing Task 2 Essays

Over the years, I have corrected more than 10,000 IELTS Task 2 essays.

To help you learn from the mistakes of my students, I made a video which revealed the 5 key things you must to do to score a Band 7+ in IELTS Writing:

For detailed help with improving your essay-writing skills, you should sign up to our IELTS Fundamentals Course. It’s completely free of charge and will give you exclusive access to:

• Never-seen-before IELTS videos;
• Practice questions for each section of the test;
• Answer sheets to help you identify your mistakes.

Learn more about it and sign up here: IELTS Fundamentals.

As always, please reach out in the comments below or via email if you need anything: [email protected]

About Christopher Pell

My name is Christopher Pell and I'm the Managing Director of IELTS Advantage.

I started IELTS Advantage as a simple blog to help 16 students in my class. Several years later, I am very humbled that my VIP Course has been able to help thousands of people around the world to score a Band 7+ in their IELTS tests.

If you need my help with your IELTS preparation, you can send me an email using the contact us page.

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100 IELTS Essay Topics for IELTS Writing

Let me start by saying that by far the best resource for authentic IELTS essay topics are the Cambridge 1 – 13 books. These are real past IELTS exam papers and, therefore, provide students with the highest quality questions for all parts of the test. However, what do you do if you have finished the Cambridge books? Or you struggle with one particular type of question and want a lot of that specific type of practise?

Well, until now, people have relied on questions that were “memorised” by test-takers(often incorrectly), or written by well-meaning teachers who have no specific education in test creation. As a result, many of the “IELTS questions” on the Internet are worded incorrectly. And, as a professional exam writer ( yes, I work creating academic exams for universities ), I know how damaging it can be if even one word in a question is changed.

So, today I am sharing my list of 100 IELTS writing topics. Some are taken from old exam papers, a few are from the Cambridge books, but most are from my own course .  More importantly, I can guarantee that each of these questions is as “authentic” as a question can be.  Have fun (and let me know your favourite question in the comments!) 

If you are new to IELTS, then check out my FREE  Introduction to Writing Task 2  👈 video lesson. It contains everything you need to know to get started on your IELTS journey   🚀

IELTS Discuss Both Views and Give your Own Opinion Writing Topics

• Some people think that illegal Internet downloads are having a negative effect on the music   industry . Others feel that they have little or no impact on artists. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
•   Some people think that exams are a good way of assessing a student’s level . Other people believe that they put unnecessary pressure on young learners and tell us very little about their actual ability.  Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Successful sportsmen can earn a great deal more than people in other important professions. Some people think this is fully justified while others think it is unfair. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people feel that there should be a fixed punishment for each type of crime . Others feel that the circumstances of an offence should be taken into account when deciding on a punishment. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people believe that all children should learn a foreign language  from the time they start school, while others believe it is better to wait until a child is at secondary school. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people believe that in the near future there will be no borders between countries , while others feel that national borders will always remain. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people feel that the cost of space exploration  is far too high for the benefits it brings while others argue that we space programmes should continue no matter what the cost. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people believe that advertising has a strong effect on a person’s decision-making process. Others feel that it has little or no real impact. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people believe that every human can create art . Other people think that art can only be created by people with special talents. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
• Some people feel that the media has the strongest impact on people’s lives . Others feel that it is politicians who have the most control over the way people lives. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people feel that the primary function of a university should be to prepare students for the working world. Others argue that the purpose of a university education is to provide knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people think that the teenage years are the happiest times of most people’s lives . Others think that adult life brings more happiness in spite of greater responsibilities. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people prefer to spend their lives doing the same things and avoiding change. Others, however, prefer to take risks and think that change is a positive thing. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people think that boys and girls should attend school together . Others feel that they should be educated separately. Discuss both sides and give your own opinion.
• Some people feel that  global warming should be dealt with by governments. Others feel that it is the responsibility of individuals in society to solve the problem. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people think that all university students should study whatever they like . Others believe that they should only be allowed to study subjects that will be useful in the future, such as those related to science and technology. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people think that a sense of competition should be encouraged in children . Others believe that children who are taught to cooperate rather than compete become more useful adults. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people think that economic development is the only way to end poverty  while others believe that it is causing damage to the environment and so should be stopped. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
• Some people think that new houses should be built in the same style as the older houses in an area . Others believe that the government should allow people to build houses in the style they want. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
• Some people like to spend their leisure time with their colleagues . Others think it is better to keep their private life separate from their work life. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Want to know how the examiner will apply the band descriptors when marking your IELTS essay?

Th en download a copy of our FREE e-book, which explains how each of the four marking criteria is applied and includes the most common errors made by test-takers. Just click here for your copy.

  T o What Extent Do you Agree or Disagree Writing Topics

• University education s hould be free for all students. To what extent do you agree or disagree
• Men and women are capable of doing all jobs  equally well. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people believe that nowadays we have too much choice . To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Advertising that targets children  should be banned from our televisions. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people say it is important to keep your home and your workplace tidy , with everything organised in the correct place. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• In some countries it is common for school leavers to take a year off  between finishing school and starting university. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this practice?
• Open plan offices offer a better working environment for staff than a normal office. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Universities should accept equal numbers of male and female students  in every subject. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• The recent popularity of online shopping will result in the end of high street shops. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• International sporting events promote peace between countries. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people think it is a good thing for senior managers to have much higher salaries than the other workers in a company. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• People who read for pleasure in their free time have a better imagination than those who prefer to watch TV. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people believe that children who are given pocket money every week have less problems managing money when they become adults. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people believe that eventually all jobs will be done by artificially intelligent robots . What is your opinion?
• Nowadays environmental problems are too big for individual countries or people to solve. We have reached the stage where we need cooperation on an international level to protect the environment. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people say that  a person’s success is as a direct result of the way they were brought up by their parents. Do you agree or disagree?
• Some people think that plastic shopping bags should be banned because they contribute to land and sea pollution. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people who have been in prison become good citizens later, and so it is often argued that these are the best people to talk to teenagers about the dangers of committing a crime. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Some people believe that children should be taught how to manage money at school. Do you agree or disagree?
• Some people believe that in order for a hobby to be enjoyable , it needs to be difficult. Do you agree or disagree?

Looking for an IELTS school run by native speakers who have a proven track record of helping students achieve their potential in IELTS? Then come join the students at  My IELTS Classroom  who are using our unique video courses, live lessons and marking service to maximise their scores. 

Best Way IELTS Essay Topics

•   One of the biggest problems facing the world today is growing enough food to feed the ever-expanding population .  Genetically Modified foods are the best way to solve this issue . To what extent do you agree or disagree?
•   The main cause of global warming   is pollution from cars.  To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Playing computer games   only has negative effects on children.  To what extent do you agree or disagree
• The main reason for the high sale of consumer goods in today’s society is advertising .  To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Good marketing is the key to running a successful business .  To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• The best way to tackle the problem of obesity   is to educate people about healthy eating.  To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• The most important factor in job satisfaction is salary .  To what extent do you agree or disagree?
• Many people use  customer reviews on the Internet to make decisions about what they  buy. A re customer reviews the most useful tool to use when making a purchase ?
• Many governments think that economic progress is their most important goal . Some people, however, think that other types of progress are equally important for a country.  Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
• Some people say that the only reason for learning a foreign language is in order to travel to or work in a foreign country . Others say that these are not the only reasons why someone should learn a foreign language.  Discuss both sides and give your own opinion.

When you are writing an IELTS essay, it is important to always think about how your answer will satisfy the IELTS Band descriptors. Don’t know what they are or how the examiner uses them to check your work?  Watch my free video lesson to find out how you can use the band descriptors to achieve a high score.

Cause / Problem / Solution IELTS Essay Topics

• The increase in the number of privately-owned cars is having a negative impact on both our towns and the environment .  What can individuals and the government do to reduce this problem?
• Many people play sport when they are young, but then stop when they become adults. Why do so many adults stop doing physical exercise ? What can be done to solve this problem?
• Fewer people today visit museums than in the past. Why is this? What can be done to encourage more people to visit museums in the future?
• Many animals today are being hunted to the point of extinction. What can be done to tackle this problem?
• In many countries today,  the average weight of people is increasing . What has led to this situation? What can be done to solve it?
• Global warming is one of the most serious issues facing the world today. What are some of the causes of global warming? What can governments and individuals do to solve the problem?
• The gap between the rich and poor  is growing. What difficulties does this cause? How can these problems be overcome?
• More people are stressed  today than ever before. What are the causes of this stress? What can be done to address this problem?
• Many young people today are leaving their homes in the countryside to move to cities . Why is this happening? What can be done to encourage young people to stay in rural areas?
• Many people today are choosing to stay in rented apartments rather than hotels  when they travel. What led to this change? What problems could it cause the travel industry?
• Children today spend a lot of time on social media . What potential problems could this cause and how could they be addressed?
• Many young people today will never be able to afford to buy a house . What has led to this situation? What can be done to remedy it?
• In many countries, the tradition of having family meals together is disappearing. Why is this happening? What will the effects of this be on the family and society?
• Nowadays we are producing more and more rubbish . Why do you think this is happening? What can the government do to help reduce this amount of rubbish produced?
• In many countries, the level of crime is increasing. What do you think are the main causes of crime? How can we deal with those causes?
• People today are spending more and more time outside of the home . What are the reasons for this trend? What effects is it having on individuals and society?
• In spite of the advances made in agriculture, many people around the world still go hungry . Why is this the case? What can be done about this problem?
• People today know fewer of their neighbours  than in the past. Why is this? What can be done to solve this problem?
• The quality of life in many large cities is currently becoming worse. Why is this? What measures can be introduced to tackle this issue?
• Many people have jobs that involve working shifts (i.e. working at night). What are some of the problems that shift workers might face? What can be done to solve them?

IELTS Advantages and Disadvantages Essay Topics

• Thanks to low-cost airlines , many people can travel abroad.  What advantages and disadvantages do tourists bring to the countries they visit?
• People today are able to take out loans from the bank or get a credit card very easily. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this practice?
• Many people use the Internet as their main educational resource . What are the advantages and disadvantages of this practice?
• In some countries, teenagers have part-time jobs while they are still at school. What benefits does this bring a child? Are there any drawbacks?
• Schools in some countries require their students to wear a uniform . What are the positives and negatives of this rule?

One of the most important things you should do in an IELTS essay is support your argument with relevant examples. But what are good examples for an IELTS essay ? – well, let me give you a clue: they do NOT include fake statistics and they are NOT personal! 

Outweigh Advantages and Disadvantages Essay Topics

• Being a celebrity – such as a film star or singer – brings problems as well as benefits. Do you think that being a celebrity brings more benefits or more problems?
• As a country develops, more people are able to purchase a car . Do you think that the positive for the individual outweigh the negatives for the environment?
• Many museums charge an admission fee  while others are free. Do you think that the advantages of charging admission to museums outweigh the disadvantages?
• Today, it is common to see famous sports people advertising sports products . Do the advantages of this trend outweigh the disadvantages?
• More and more people are choosing to eat ready-made meals rather than freshly cooked food. Does this trend have more advantages than disadvantages?

Positive or Negative Development IELTS Essay Topics

•   Many parents today employ private tutors   to teach their children after school hours.  Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
• Today, more people are waiting until their thirties to get married and have children .  Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
• In recent years, many small local shops have closed   because customers travel to large shopping centres or malls to do their shopping.  Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
• Countries are becoming more and more similar   because people are able to buy the same products anywhere in the world.  Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
• Nowadays  many people communicate using social media .  Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

Most IELTS blog posts are full of advice about how to paraphrase. Me? I’m the opposite – I want to encourage people NOT to paraphrase? Why? Read my blog post on the Dangers of Paraphrasing to find out! ☠️

IELTS Direct Question Writing Topics

• Some students who perform badly at school   go on to have very successful lives as adults. What qualities are needed to do well at school? Are these the same qualities that help people succeed later in life?
• 100 years ago, it was felt that the human race was making progress in all areas of life . Nowadays, there is less certainty that this is the case. In what areas do you think that the most progress has been made so far?  In what area are more things needed to be done?
• Many people believe that globalisation is leading to the culture of individual countries being lost . What can be done to protect a society’s traditional values?
• Children often complain that history lessons are boring because they are about a past that is dead. How can schools bring history alive for pupils?
• Some people think that the government is responsible for looking after the elderly . Others believe that it should be family members. Who do you think should take responsibility?

Don’t know what a complex sentence is or how to write one? Well my friend, you are in the right place! Watch the lesson voted the #1 most useful by my students here (you really don’t need to be afraid!)

IELTS Two-Part Question Essay Topics

• More and more people today are moving from the countryside .  Why is this happening?  Do you think it is a positive or a negative development?
• People spend a major part of their adult life at work, and job satisfaction  is an important part of individual well-being. What contributes to a person feeling satisfied at work? How realistic is it for all people to feel satisfied?
• Many people have problems managing money . What skills does a person need to manage their money well? Who should teach children these skills?
• Technology has changed the way that people interact with each other. In what ways has technology changed the types of relationships that people make? Has this been a positive or negative development?
• Children have to be punished  to learn the difference between right and wrong. To what extent do you agree or disagree? What sort of punishments should parents be able to give their children?
• Thanks to developments in technology, many people today have lost basic skills such as how to repair clothes, etc. Why is this happening? Do you think that this is a negative development?
• Some people think that governments should try to reduce air traffic  by taxing it more heavily, Do you agree or disagree? What other methods could be used to reduce air traffic?
• Some people feel that schools should teach children how to become a good parent.  Do you agree or disagree with this opinion? What skills do people need to be a good parent?
• Nowadays, men’s sport is given far more attention in society than women’s sports. What are the reasons for this? Do you think this is a positive or a negative situation?
• Advances in technology mean that many people today work from home . What has led to this change? Is it a positive or negative development?

So, those were 100 IELTS essay topics you can use to practice your IELTS skills. I hope you found them useful. You can find out how to write every one of these 100 essay in My IELTS Classroom – the interactive writing course with 33-hours of lessons that will prepare you for any IELTS  question 🚀

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Essay Exams

What this handout is about.

At some time in your undergraduate career, you’re going to have to write an essay exam. This thought can inspire a fair amount of fear: we struggle enough with essays when they aren’t timed events based on unknown questions. The goal of this handout is to give you some easy and effective strategies that will help you take control of the situation and do your best.

Why do instructors give essay exams?

Essay exams are a useful tool for finding out if you can sort through a large body of information, figure out what is important, and explain why it is important. Essay exams challenge you to come up with key course ideas and put them in your own words and to use the interpretive or analytical skills you’ve practiced in the course. Instructors want to see whether:

• You understand concepts that provide the basis for the course
• You can use those concepts to interpret specific materials
• You can make connections, see relationships, draw comparisons and contrasts
• You can synthesize diverse information in support of an original assertion
• You can justify your own evaluations based on appropriate criteria
• You can argue your own opinions with convincing evidence
• You can think critically and analytically about a subject

What essay questions require

Exam questions can reach pretty far into the course materials, so you cannot hope to do well on them if you do not keep up with the readings and assignments from the beginning of the course. The most successful essay exam takers are prepared for anything reasonable, and they probably have some intelligent guesses about the content of the exam before they take it. How can you be a prepared exam taker? Try some of the following suggestions during the semester:

• Do the reading as the syllabus dictates; keeping up with the reading while the related concepts are being discussed in class saves you double the effort later.
• Go to lectures (and put away your phone, the newspaper, and that crossword puzzle!).
• Take careful notes that you’ll understand months later. If this is not your strong suit or the conventions for a particular discipline are different from what you are used to, ask your TA or the Learning Center for advice.
• Participate in your discussion sections; this will help you absorb the material better so you don’t have to study as hard.
• Organize small study groups with classmates to explore and review course materials throughout the semester. Others will catch things you might miss even when paying attention. This is not cheating. As long as what you write on the essay is your own work, formulating ideas and sharing notes is okay. In fact, it is a big part of the learning process.
• As an exam approaches, find out what you can about the form it will take. This will help you forecast the questions that will be on the exam, and prepare for them.

These suggestions will save you lots of time and misery later. Remember that you can’t cram weeks of information into a single day or night of study. So why put yourself in that position?

Now let’s focus on studying for the exam. You’ll notice the following suggestions are all based on organizing your study materials into manageable chunks of related material. If you have a plan of attack, you’ll feel more confident and your answers will be more clear. Here are some tips: 

• Don’t just memorize aimlessly; clarify the important issues of the course and use these issues to focus your understanding of specific facts and particular readings.
• Try to organize and prioritize the information into a thematic pattern. Look at what you’ve studied and find a way to put things into related groups. Find the fundamental ideas that have been emphasized throughout the course and organize your notes into broad categories. Think about how different categories relate to each other.
• Find out what you don’t know, but need to know, by making up test questions and trying to answer them. Studying in groups helps as well.

Taking the exam

Read the exam carefully.

• If you are given the entire exam at once and can determine your approach on your own, read the entire exam before you get started.
• Look at how many points each part earns you, and find hints for how long your answers should be.
• Figure out how much time you have and how best to use it. Write down the actual clock time that you expect to take in each section, and stick to it. This will help you avoid spending all your time on only one section. One strategy is to divide the available time according to percentage worth of the question. You don’t want to spend half of your time on something that is only worth one tenth of the total points.
• As you read, make tentative choices of the questions you will answer (if you have a choice). Don’t just answer the first essay question you encounter. Instead, read through all of the options. Jot down really brief ideas for each question before deciding.
• Remember that the easiest-looking question is not always as easy as it looks. Focus your attention on questions for which you can explain your answer most thoroughly, rather than settle on questions where you know the answer but can’t say why.

Analyze the questions

• Decide what you are being asked to do. If you skim the question to find the main “topic” and then rush to grasp any related ideas you can recall, you may become flustered, lose concentration, and even go blank. Try looking closely at what the question is directing you to do, and try to understand the sort of writing that will be required.
• Focus on what you do know about the question, not on what you don’t.
• Look at the active verbs in the assignment—they tell you what you should be doing. We’ve included some of these below, with some suggestions on what they might mean. (For help with this sort of detective work, see the Writing Center handout titled Reading Assignments.)

Information words, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject. Information words may include:

• define—give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning.
• explain why/how—give reasons why or examples of how something happened.
• illustrate—give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject.
• summarize—briefly cover the important ideas you learned about the subject.
• trace—outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form.
• research—gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you’ve found.

Relation words ask you to demonstrate how things are connected. Relation words may include:

• compare—show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different).
• contrast—show how two or more things are dissimilar.
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation.
• cause—show how one event or series of events made something else happen.
• relate—show or describe the connections between things.

Interpretation words ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Don’t see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation. Interpretation words may include:

• prove, justify—give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth.
• evaluate, respond, assess—state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons (you may want to compare your subject to something else).
• support—give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe).
• synthesize—put two or more things together that haven’t been put together before; don’t just summarize one and then the other, and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together (as opposed to compare and contrast—see above).
• analyze—look closely at the components of something to figure out how it works, what it might mean, or why it is important.
• argue—take a side and defend it (with proof) against the other side.

Plan your answers

Think about your time again. How much planning time you should take depends on how much time you have for each question and how many points each question is worth. Here are some general guidelines: 

• For short-answer definitions and identifications, just take a few seconds. Skip over any you don’t recognize fairly quickly, and come back to them when another question jogs your memory.
• For answers that require a paragraph or two, jot down several important ideas or specific examples that help to focus your thoughts.
• For longer answers, you will need to develop a much more definite strategy of organization. You only have time for one draft, so allow a reasonable amount of time—as much as a quarter of the time you’ve allotted for the question—for making notes, determining a thesis, and developing an outline.
• For questions with several parts (different requests or directions, a sequence of questions), make a list of the parts so that you do not miss or minimize one part. One way to be sure you answer them all is to number them in the question and in your outline.
• You may have to try two or three outlines or clusters before you hit on a workable plan. But be realistic—you want a plan you can develop within the limited time allotted for your answer. Your outline will have to be selective—not everything you know, but what you know that you can state clearly and keep to the point in the time available.

Again, focus on what you do know about the question, not on what you don’t.

Writing your answers

As with planning, your strategy for writing depends on the length of your answer:

• For short identifications and definitions, it is usually best to start with a general identifying statement and then move on to describe specific applications or explanations. Two sentences will almost always suffice, but make sure they are complete sentences. Find out whether the instructor wants definition alone, or definition and significance. Why is the identification term or object important?
• For longer answers, begin by stating your forecasting statement or thesis clearly and explicitly. Strive for focus, simplicity, and clarity. In stating your point and developing your answers, you may want to use important course vocabulary words from the question. For example, if the question is, “How does wisteria function as a representation of memory in Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom?” you may want to use the words wisteria, representation, memory, and Faulkner) in your thesis statement and answer. Use these important words or concepts throughout the answer.
• If you have devised a promising outline for your answer, then you will be able to forecast your overall plan and its subpoints in your opening sentence. Forecasting impresses readers and has the very practical advantage of making your answer easier to read. Also, if you don’t finish writing, it tells your reader what you would have said if you had finished (and may get you partial points).
• You might want to use briefer paragraphs than you ordinarily do and signal clear relations between paragraphs with transition phrases or sentences.
• As you move ahead with the writing, you may think of new subpoints or ideas to include in the essay. Stop briefly to make a note of these on your original outline. If they are most appropriately inserted in a section you’ve already written, write them neatly in the margin, at the top of the page, or on the last page, with arrows or marks to alert the reader to where they fit in your answer. Be as neat and clear as possible.
• Don’t pad your answer with irrelevancies and repetitions just to fill up space. Within the time available, write a comprehensive, specific answer.
• Watch the clock carefully to ensure that you do not spend too much time on one answer. You must be realistic about the time constraints of an essay exam. If you write one dazzling answer on an exam with three equally-weighted required questions, you earn only 33 points—not enough to pass at most colleges. This may seem unfair, but keep in mind that instructors plan exams to be reasonably comprehensive. They want you to write about the course materials in two or three or more ways, not just one way. Hint: if you finish a half-hour essay in 10 minutes, you may need to develop some of your ideas more fully.
• If you run out of time when you are writing an answer, jot down the remaining main ideas from your outline, just to show that you know the material and with more time could have continued your exposition.
• Double-space to leave room for additions, and strike through errors or changes with one straight line (avoid erasing or scribbling over). Keep things as clean as possible. You never know what will earn you partial credit.
• Write legibly and proofread. Remember that your instructor will likely be reading a large pile of exams. The more difficult they are to read, the more exasperated the instructor might become. Your instructor also cannot give you credit for what they cannot understand. A few minutes of careful proofreading can improve your grade.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind in writing essay exams is that you have a limited amount of time and space in which to get across the knowledge you have acquired and your ability to use it. Essay exams are not the place to be subtle or vague. It’s okay to have an obvious structure, even the five-paragraph essay format you may have been taught in high school. Introduce your main idea, have several paragraphs of support—each with a single point defended by specific examples, and conclude with a restatement of your main point and its significance.

Some physiological tips

Just think—we expect athletes to practice constantly and use everything in their abilities and situations in order to achieve success. Yet, somehow many students are convinced that one day’s worth of studying, no sleep, and some well-placed compliments (“Gee, Dr. So-and-so, I really enjoyed your last lecture”) are good preparation for a test. Essay exams are like any other testing situation in life: you’ll do best if you are prepared for what is expected of you, have practiced doing it before, and have arrived in the best shape to do it. You may not want to believe this, but it’s true: a good night’s sleep and a relaxed mind and body can do as much or more for you as any last-minute cram session. Colleges abound with tales of woe about students who slept through exams because they stayed up all night, wrote an essay on the wrong topic, forgot everything they studied, or freaked out in the exam and hyperventilated. If you are rested, breathing normally, and have brought along some healthy, energy-boosting snacks that you can eat or drink quietly, you are in a much better position to do a good job on the test. You aren’t going to write a good essay on something you figured out at 4 a.m. that morning. If you prepare yourself well throughout the semester, you don’t risk your whole grade on an overloaded, undernourished brain.

If for some reason you get yourself into this situation, take a minute every once in a while during the test to breathe deeply, stretch, and clear your brain. You need to be especially aware of the likelihood of errors, so check your essays thoroughly before you hand them in to make sure they answer the right questions and don’t have big oversights or mistakes (like saying “Hitler” when you really mean “Churchill”).

If you tend to go blank during exams, try studying in the same classroom in which the test will be given. Some research suggests that people attach ideas to their surroundings, so it might jog your memory to see the same things you were looking at while you studied.

Try good luck charms. Bring in something you associate with success or the support of your loved ones, and use it as a psychological boost.

Take all of the time you’ve been allotted. Reread, rework, and rethink your answers if you have extra time at the end, rather than giving up and handing the exam in the minute you’ve written your last sentence. Use every advantage you are given.

Remember that instructors do not want to see you trip up—they want to see you do well. With this in mind, try to relax and just do the best you can. The more you panic, the more mistakes you are liable to make. Put the test in perspective: will you die from a poor performance? Will you lose all of your friends? Will your entire future be destroyed? Remember: it’s just a test.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Axelrod, Rise B., and Charles R. Cooper. 2016. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing , 11th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Fowler, Ramsay H., and Jane E. Aaron. 2016. The Little, Brown Handbook , 13th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Gefvert, Constance J. 1988. The Confident Writer: A Norton Handbook , 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Kirszner, Laurie G. 1988. Writing: A College Rhetoric , 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Woodman, Leonara, and Thomas P. Adler. 1988. The Writer’s Choices , 2nd ed. Northbrook, Illinois: Scott Foresman.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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• Knowledge Base

The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

• Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
• Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
• Revision:  Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

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Table of contents

Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.

The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .

For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.

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Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:

• Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
• Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
• Do your research: Read  primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
• Come up with a thesis:  The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
• Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.

The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.

1. Hook your reader

The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.

Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

2. Provide background on your topic

Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.

3. Present the thesis statement

Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:

As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.

4. Map the structure

In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.

The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Write your essay introduction

The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.

Length of the body text

The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.

Paragraph structure

To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.

That idea is introduced in a  topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

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The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :

• Returns to your thesis
• Ties together your main points
• Shows why your argument matters

A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.

What not to include in a conclusion

To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:

• Including new arguments or evidence
• Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
• Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Write your essay conclusion

Checklist: Essay

My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).

My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.

My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.

I use paragraphs to structure the essay.

I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.

Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.

I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.

I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.

I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.

I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.

My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .

My essay has an interesting and informative title.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g. font, page numbers, line spacing).

Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, sat essay prompts: the complete list.

SAT Writing , SAT Essay

On every SAT Essay, you'll have to read an argument meant to persuade a broad audience and discuss how well the author argues his or her point. The passage you'll have to read will change from test to test, but you'll always need to analyze the author's argument and write a coherent and organized essay explaining this analysis.

In this article, we've compiled a list of the 14 real SAT essay prompts that the College Board has released (either in The Official SAT Study Guide or separately online) for the new SAT. This is the most comprehensive set of new SAT essay prompts online today.

At the end of this article, we'll also guide you through how to get the most out of these prompts and link to our expert resources on acing the SAT essay. I'll discuss how the SAT essay prompts are valuable not just because they give you a chance to write a practice essay, but because of what they reveal about the essay task itself.

UPDATE: SAT Essay No Longer Offered

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In January 2021, the College Board announced that after June 2021, it would no longer offer the Essay portion of the SAT (except at schools who opt in during School Day Testing). It is now no longer possible to take the SAT Essay, unless your school is one of the small number who choose to offer it during SAT School Day Testing.

While most colleges had already made SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board means no colleges now require the SAT Essay. It will also likely lead to additional college application changes such not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT or ACT, as well as potentially requiring additional writing samples for placement.

What does the end of the SAT Essay mean for your college applications? Check out our article on the College Board's SAT Essay decision for everything you need to know.

SAT essay prompts always keep to the same basic format. Not only is the prompt format consistent from test to test, but what you're actually asked to do (discuss how an author builds an argument) also remains the same across different test administrations.

The College Board's predictability with SAT essay helps students focus on preparing for the actual analytical task, rather than having to think up stuff on their feet. Every time, before the passage, you'll see the following:

• evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.
• reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
• stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.

And after the passage, you'll see this:

"Write an essay in which you explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [her/his] audience that [whatever the author is trying to argue for]. In your essay, analyze how [the author] uses one or more of the features listed in the box above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

Your essay should not explain whether you agree with [the author]'s claims, but rather explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade [her/his/their] audience."

Now that you know the format, let's look at the SAT essay prompts list.

14 Official SAT Essay Prompts

The College Board has released a limited number of prompts to help students prep for the essay. We've gathered them for you here, all in one place. We'll be sure to update this article as more prompts are released for practice and/or as more tests are released.

SPOILER ALERT : Since these are the only essay prompts that have been released so far, you may want to be cautious about spoiling them for yourself, particularly if you are planning on taking practice tests under real conditions . This is why I've organized the prompts by the 10 that are in the practice tests (so you can avoid them if need be), the ones that are available online as sample prompts, and the ones that are in the text of the Official SAT Study Guide (Redesigned SAT), all online for free.

Practice Test Prompts

These 10 prompts are taken from the practice tests that the College Board has released.

Practice Test 1 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Jimmy Carter builds an argument to persuade his audience that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should not be developed for industry."

Practice Test 2 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Martin Luther King Jr. builds an argument to persuade his audience that American involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust."

Practice Test 3 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Eliana Dockterman builds an argument to persuade her audience that there are benefits to early exposure to technology."

Practice Test 4 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Paul Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved."

Practice Test 5 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Eric Klinenberg builds an argument to persuade his audience that Americans need to greatly reduce their reliance on air-conditioning."

Practice Test 6 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Christopher Hitchens builds an argument to persuade his audience that the original Parthenon sculptures should be returned to Greece."

Practice Test 7 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Zadie Smith builds an argument to persuade her audience that public libraries are important and should remain open"

Practice Test 8 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Bobby Braun builds an argument to persuade his audience that the US government must continue to invest in NASA."

Practice Test 9 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Todd Davidson builds an argument to persuade his audience that the US government must continue to fund national parks."

Practice Test 10 :

"Write an essay in which you explain how Richard Schiffman builds an argument to persuade his audience that Americans need to work fewer hours."

Special note: The prompt for Practice Test 4 also appears on the College Board's site with real sample essays written in response. If you've written a practice essay for practice test 4 and want to see what essays of different score levels look like for that particular prompt, you can go there and look at eight real student essays.

Free Online Practice

This prompt comes from the College Board website .

"Write an essay in which you explain how Dana Gioia builds an argument to persuade his audience that the decline of reading in America will have a negative effect on society."

This prompt comes from Khan Academy , where it is listed as an alternate essay prompt to go along with Practice Test 2:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Leo W. Gerard builds an argument to persuade his audience that American colleges and universities should be affordable for all students."

The Official SAT Study Guide 2020

The Official SAT Study Guide (editions published in 2015 and later available online for free) contains all 10 of the previously mentioned practice tests at the end of the book. In the section about the new SAT essay , however, there are two additional sample essay prompts (accompanied by articles to analyze).

Sample Prompt 1:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Peter S. Goodman builds an argument to persuade his audience that news organizations should increase the amount of professional foreign news coverage provided to people in the United States."

Sample Prompt 2:

"Write an essay in which you explain how Adam B. Summers builds an argument to persuade his audience that plastic shopping bags should not be banned."

Ready to go beyond just reading about the SAT? Then you'll love the free five-day trial for our SAT Complete Prep program . Designed and written by PrepScholar SAT experts , our SAT program customizes to your skill level in over 40 subskills so that you can focus your studying on what will get you the biggest score gains.

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How Do You Get the Most Out of These Prompts?

Now that you have all the prompts released by the College Board, it's important to know the best way to use them. Make sure you have a good balance between quality and quantity, and don't burn through all 14 of the real prompts in a row— take the time to learn from your experiences writing the practice essays.

Step By Step Guide on How to Practice Using the Article

#1: Understand how the SAT essay is graded .

#2: Follow along as we write a high-scoring SAT essay, step by step .

#3: Plan a set of features you'll look for in the SAT essay readings and practice writing about them fluidly. This doesn't just mean identifying a technique, like asking a rhetorical question, but explaining why it is persuasive and what effect it has on the reader in the context of a particular topic. We have more information on this step in our article about 6 SAT persuasive devices you can use .

#4: Choose a prompt at random from above, or choose a topic that you think is going to be hard for you to detach from (because you'll want to write about the topic, rather than the argument) set timer to 50 minutes and write the essay. No extra time allowed!

#5: Grade the essay, using the official essay rubric to give yourself a score out of 8 in the reading, analysis, and writing sections.

#6: Repeat steps 4 and 5. Choose the prompts you think will be the hardest for you so that you can so that you're prepared for the worst when the test day comes

#7: If you run out of official prompts to practice with, use the official prompts as models to find examples of other articles you could write about . Start by looking for op-ed articles in online news publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, LA Times , and so on. For instance, the passage about the plastic bag ban in California (Official SAT Study Guide sample essay prompt 2, above) has a counterpoint here —you could try analyzing and writing about that article as well.

Any additional articles you use for practice on the SAT essay must match the following criteria:

• ideally 650-750 words , although it'll be difficult to find an op-ed piece that's naturally that short. Try to aim for nothing longer than 2000 words, though, or the scope of the article is likely to be wider than anything you'll encounter on the SAT.
• always argumentative/persuasive . The author (or authors) is trying to get readers to agree with a claim or idea being put forward.
• always intended for a wide audience . All the information you need to deconstruct the persuasiveness of the argument is in the passage. This means that articles with a lot of technical jargon that's not explained in the article are not realistic passage to practice with.

What's Next?

We've written a ton of helpful resources on the SAT essay. I f you're just getting started, we recommend beginning with our top SAT essay tips for a quick overview of the essay task and what you need to know.

A little more familiar with the SAT essay but still not quite sure how to write one? Follow along with our step-by-step guide to writing the SAT essay .

Looking to earn a high score? Learn what it takes to get the highest score possible on the SAT essay here .

Plus, if you want a reference linking you to all of our great articles on the SAT essay, be sure to check out our ultimate SAT essay guide .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?

Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more.

Our program is entirely online, and it customizes your prep program to your strengths and weaknesses. We also have expert instructors who can grade every one of your practice SAT essays, giving feedback on how to improve your score.

Check out our 5-day free trial:

Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

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130 New Prompts for Argumentative Writing

Questions on everything from mental health and sports to video games and dating. Which ones inspire you to take a stand?

By The Learning Network

Note: We have an updated version of this list, with 300 new argumentative writing prompts .

What issues do you care most about? What topics do you find yourself discussing passionately, whether online, at the dinner table, in the classroom or with your friends?

In Unit 5 of our free yearlong writing curriculum and related Student Editorial Contest , we invite students to research and write about the issues that matter to them, whether that’s Shakespeare , health care , standardized testing or being messy .

But with so many possibilities, where does one even begin? Try our student writing prompts.

In 2017, we compiled a list of 401 argumentative writing prompts , all drawn from our daily Student Opinion column . Now, we’re rounding up 130 more we’ve published since then ( available here as a PDF ). Each prompt links to a free Times article as well as additional subquestions that can help you think more deeply about it.

You might use this list to inspire your own writing and to find links to reliable resources about the issues that intrigue you. But even if you’re not participating in our contest, you can use these prompts to practice the kind of low-stakes writing that can help you hone your argumentation skills.

So scroll through the list below with questions on everything from sports and mental health to dating and video games and see which ones inspire you to take a stand.

Please note: Many of these prompts are still open to comment by students 13 and up.

Technology & Social Media

1. Do Memes Make the Internet a Better Place? 2. Does Online Public Shaming Prevent Us From Being Able to Grow and Change? 3. How Young Is Too Young to Use Social Media? 4. Should the Adults in Your Life Be Worried by How Much You Use Your Phone? 5. Is Your Phone Love Hurting Your Relationships? 6. Should Kids Be Social Media Influencers? 7. Does Grammar Still Matter in the Age of Twitter? 8. Should Texting While Driving Be Treated Like Drunken Driving? 9. How Do You Think Technology Affects Dating?

10. Are Straight A’s Always a Good Thing? 11. Should Schools Teach You How to Be Happy? 12. How Do You Think American Education Could Be Improved? 13. Should Schools Test Their Students for Nicotine and Drug Use? 14. Can Social Media Be a Tool for Learning and Growth in Schools? 15. Should Facial Recognition Technology Be Used in Schools? 16. Should Your School Day Start Later? 17. How Should Senior Year in High School Be Spent? 18. Should Teachers Be Armed With Guns? 19. Is School a Place for Self-Expression? 20. Should Students Be Punished for Not Having Lunch Money? 21. Is Live-Streaming Classrooms a Good Idea? 22. Should Gifted and Talented Education Be Eliminated? 23. What Are the Most Important Things Students Should Learn in School? 24. Should Schools Be Allowed to Censor Student Newspapers? 25. Do You Feel Your School and Teachers Welcome Both Conservative and Liberal Points of View? 26. Should Teachers and Professors Ban Student Use of Laptops in Class? 27. Should Schools Teach About Climate Change? 28. Should All Schools Offer Music Programs? 29. Does Your School Need More Money? 30. Should All Schools Teach Cursive? 31. What Role Should Textbooks Play in Education? 32. Do Kids Need Recess?

College & Career

33. What Is Your Reaction to the College Admissions Cheating Scandal? 34. Is the College Admissions Process Fair? 35. Should Everyone Go to College? 36. Should College Be Free? 37. Are Lavish Amenities on College Campuses Useful or Frivolous? 38. Should ‘Despised Dissenters’ Be Allowed to Speak on College Campuses? 39. How Should the Problem of Sexual Assault on Campuses Be Addressed? 40. Should Fraternities Be Abolished? 41. Is Student Debt Worth It?

Mental & Physical Health

42. Should Students Get Mental Health Days Off From School? 43. Is Struggle Essential to Happiness? 44. Does Every Country Need a ‘Loneliness Minister’? 45. Should Schools Teach Mindfulness? 46. Should All Children Be Vaccinated? 47. What Do You Think About Vegetarianism? 48. Do We Worry Too Much About Germs? 49. What Advice Should Parents and Counselors Give Teenagers About Sexting? 50. Do You Think Porn Influences the Way Teenagers Think About Sex?

Race & Gender

51. How Should Parents Teach Their Children About Race and Racism? 52. Is America ‘Backsliding’ on Race? 53. Should All Americans Receive Anti-Bias Education? 54. Should All Companies Require Anti-Bias Training for Employees? 55. Should Columbus Day Be Replaced With Indigenous Peoples Day? 56. Is Fear of ‘The Other’ Poisoning Public Life? 57. Should the Boy Scouts Be Coed? 58. What Is Hard About Being a Boy?

59. Can You Separate Art From the Artist? 60. Are There Subjects That Should Be Off-Limits to Artists, or to Certain Artists in Particular? 61. Should Art Come With Trigger Warnings? 62. Should Graffiti Be Protected? 63. Is the Digital Era Improving or Ruining the Experience of Art? 64. Are Museums Still Important in the Digital Age? 65. In the Age of Digital Streaming, Are Movie Theaters Still Relevant? 66. Is Hollywood Becoming More Diverse? 67. What Stereotypical Characters Make You Cringe? 68. Do We Need More Female Superheroes? 69. Do Video Games Deserve the Bad Rap They Often Get? 70. Should Musicians Be Allowed to Copy or Borrow From Other Artists? 71. Is Listening to a Book Just as Good as Reading It? 72. Is There Any Benefit to Reading Books You Hate?

73. Should Girls and Boys Sports Teams Compete in the Same League? 74. Should College Athletes Be Paid? 75. Are Youth Sports Too Competitive? 76. Is It Selfish to Pursue Risky Sports Like Extreme Mountain Climbing? 77. How Should We Punish Sports Cheaters? 78. Should Technology in Sports Be Limited? 79. Should Blowouts Be Allowed in Youth Sports? 80. Is It Offensive for Sports Teams and Their Fans to Use Native American Names, Imagery and Gestures?

81. Is It Wrong to Focus on Animal Welfare When Humans Are Suffering? 82. Should Extinct Animals Be Resurrected? If So, Which Ones? 83. Are Emotional-Support Animals a Scam? 84. Is Animal Testing Ever Justified? 85. Should We Be Concerned With Where We Get Our Pets? 86. Is This Exhibit Animal Cruelty or Art?

Parenting & Childhood

87. Who Should Decide Whether a Teenager Can Get a Tattoo or Piercing? 88. Is It Harder to Grow Up in the 21st Century Than It Was in the Past? 89. Should Parents Track Their Teenager’s Location? 90. Is Childhood Today Over-Supervised? 91. How Should Parents Talk to Their Children About Drugs? 92. What Should We Call Your Generation? 93. Do Other People Care Too Much About Your Post-High School Plans? 94. Do Parents Ever Cross a Line by Helping Too Much With Schoolwork? 95. What’s the Best Way to Discipline Children? 96. What Are Your Thoughts on ‘Snowplow Parents’? 97. Should Stay-at-Home Parents Be Paid? 98. When Do You Become an Adult?

Ethics & Morality

99. Why Do Bystanders Sometimes Fail to Help When They See Someone in Danger? 100. Is It Ethical to Create Genetically Edited Humans? 101. Should Reporters Ever Help the People They Are Covering? 102. Is It O.K. to Use Family Connections to Get a Job? 103. Is $1 Billion Too Much Money for Any One Person to Have? 104. Are We Being Bad Citizens If We Don’t Keep Up With the News? 105. Should Prisons Offer Incarcerated People Education Opportunities? 106. Should Law Enforcement Be Able to Use DNA Data From Genealogy Websites for Criminal Investigations? 107. Should We Treat Robots Like People?

Government & Politics

108. Does the United States Owe Reparations to the Descendants of Enslaved People? 109. Do You Think It Is Important for Teenagers to Participate in Political Activism? 110. Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? 111. What Should Lawmakers Do About Guns and Gun Violence? 112. Should Confederate Statues Be Removed or Remain in Place? 113. Does the U.S. Constitution Need an Equal Rights Amendment? 114. Should National Monuments Be Protected by the Government? 115. Should Free Speech Protections Include Self Expression That Discriminates? 116. How Important Is Freedom of the Press? 117. Should Ex-Felons Have the Right to Vote? 118. Should Marijuana Be Legal? 119. Should the United States Abolish Daylight Saving Time? 120. Should We Abolish the Death Penalty? 121. Should the U.S. Ban Military-Style Semiautomatic Weapons? 122. Should the U.S. Get Rid of the Electoral College? 123. What Do You Think of President Trump’s Use of Twitter? 124. Should Celebrities Weigh In on Politics? 125. Why Is It Important for People With Different Political Beliefs to Talk to Each Other?

Other Questions

126. Should the Week Be Four Days Instead of Five? 127. Should Public Transit Be Free? 128. How Important Is Knowing a Foreign Language? 129. Is There a ‘Right Way’ to Be a Tourist? 130. Should Your Significant Other Be Your Best Friend?

100+ Sample Questions With High Scoring Answers

One way to improve your Duolingo English Test score is by taking practice questions and reviewing model answers. Luckily for you, you can now do both of these things at the same time using the cue cards below!

In this article, we have 100+ Duolingo English Test practice questions and high-scoring, model answers for you to study with. You may wish to print these out and fold them over so that the example question is on one side and the model answer is on the other side. Alternatively, you can just answer the question and then scroll down when you have finished to reveal the example response. Either way, with these cue cards you can practice answering Duolingo English Test questions and then directly compare your answer to the model answer.

If you want to get even more practice questions, you can sign up for Arno. We not only give you unlimited practice questions for every question type. We also give you an estimated score, feedback on your grammar and vocabulary, and a high-scoring, rewritten version of your response – instantly! Just click below to create your free account!

Table of Contents

(1-17) "read and complete" questions and answers.

• (18 - 34) "Fill in the Blanks" Questions and Answers
• (35 - 51) "Read and Select" Questions and Answers

(52-68) "Write about the Photo" Questions and Answers

(69-85) "interactive reading" questions and answers.

• (86-120) "Writing Sample" Questions and Answers

👉 As you gain more familiarity with the questions, try using a timer to make sure you are answering the questions within the time limits set by Duolingo.

"Read and Complete" questions appear 4-6 times throughout the test and count towards your Literacy and Comprehension subscores . You are given 3 minutes to fill in all the blanks.

• "Read and Complete" Cue Card #1 🚀

2. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #2 👩‍✈️

3. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #3 🖼️

4.  "Read and Complete" Cue Card #4 🇮🇹

5. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #5 👪

6. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #6 🌊

7. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #7 ⛰️

8. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #8 🖥️

9. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #9 🌌

10. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #10 🏭

11. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #11 🌾

12. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #12 🌎

13. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #13 🐨

14. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #14 ☕

15. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #15📚

16. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #16 ☃️

17. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #17 ❄️

As you can tell, we love emojis here at Arno! 😎🤓🥰

(18-34) "Fill in the Blanks" Questions and Answers

18. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #1

19. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #2

20. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #3

21. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #4

22. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #5

23. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #6

24. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #7

25. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #8

26. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #9

27. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #10

28. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #11

29. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #12

30. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #13

31. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #14

32. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #15

33. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #16

34. "Fill in the Blanks" Cue Card #17

(18-34) "Read and Select" Questions and Answers

"Read and Select" questions appear 4-6 times on the test, and they also count toward your Literacy and Comprehension subscores. You will have 1 minute to select all the real English words from the list presented.

35. "Read and Select" Cue Card #1

36. "Read and Select" Cue Card #2

37. "Read and Complete" Cue Card #3

38. "Read and Select" Cue Card #4

39. "Read and Select" Cue Card #5

40. "Read and Select" Cue Card #6

41. "Read and Select" Cue Card #7

42. "Read and Select" Cue Card #8

43. "Read and Select" Cue Card #9

44. "Read and Select" Cue Card #10

45. "Read and Select" Cue Card #11

46. "Read and Select" Cue Card #12

47. "Read and Select" Cue Card #13

48. "Read and Select" Cue Card #14

49. "Read and Select" Cue Card #15

50. "Read and Select" Cue Card #16

51. "Read and Select" Cue Card #17

👉Were any of the "real English words" in these lists unfamiliar to you? If so, you may want to make a note of their spelling and definition so you can revisit them later.

"Write about the photo" questions require writing a description of the picture in response to the image on the screen in 1 minute. These questions count towards your Literacy and Production subscores and come up three times on the test. As a reminder, you should always try to write more than one sentence in response.

52. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #1 🐕

The woman appears to be walking her pet dog, and both parties seem to be gazing into the distance. Because there is a boat behind the woman and dog, it is likely that they are at a harbor, surveying a body of water. The dog has a fluorescent orange collar, thick grey fur, and a long snout . The woman has short, brown hair; a canary yellow raincoat ; and wears a stoic expression. The sky is light grey, suggesting that it is a cold, rainy morning.

Word count - 85

53. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #2 ☀️

A smiling young woman poses for the photograph, with her arms outstretched, seemingly emphasizing the natural beauty of her surroundings . She sits cross- legged on a wooden boat sailing down a river. Given the camera around her neck, we can infer that she is sightseeing , perhaps on a vacation. Her shorts, the sunshine, and rich foliage indicate that it is a summer day, or perhaps that she is in a country with a hot climate.

Word count - 74

54. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #3 🙏🏼

Two Buddhist monks, adorned in traditional orange and yellow robes and sandals , appear to be meandering through a park. Their tanquil demeanor suggests they are in no rush to get to their destination; perhaps they are leisurely making their way back to their monastery. They appear to be engaged in conversation because the monk on the right has his head turned towards the other, indicating that he is listening carefully.  As it is bright outside, and the leaves on the trees are green, it is likely a spring or summer morning.

Word count - 91

55. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #4 💼

A man resplendent in a black suit and tie scrutinizes the time on his wristwatch . His formal clothing and briefcase suggest that he is a businessman en route to work and his concerned expression suggests that he is running late - probably due to the tardiness of the train pulling in behind him! The tightly grasped coffee, abundance of natural light, and sunglasses all signify that it is morning; despite the light, the wizened leafless trees reveal that the season is winter.

Word count - 80

56. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #5 🎃

A young child is sprinting frenetically through a park or forest. The leaves on the ground and trees are ablaze with vibrant orange, suggesting that it's autumn -- the fading light indicates that dusk is swiftly approaching. Her open mouth,  urgent pace, and the absence of others denote a sense of eerie doom -- perhaps she is running away from a malevolent prescence or towards assistance.

Word count - 64

57. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #6 🍷

A woman beams as she delicately adds a block to a precarious Jenga tower. There is a leg in the periphery of the frame, hinting that she is unwinding with a loved one, perhaps her spouse. Both individuals are dressed in comfy attire, perhaps pyjamas , and there is wine on the table, and cozy lamps light the room -- it is likely a laxadaisical Saturday night in. It's possible they are revelling in each others' company and completing the puzzle in order to recover from a hectic work week.

Word count - 88

58. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #7 🐈

A young man is inquisitively surveying a greenhouse or botanical store with a fluffy kitten perched on his shoulder. The natural light streaming through the windows implies it is morning. As the young man contemplates his next purchase or decides the plant needs his nourishment next , he remains oblivious to the kitten's intentions! The adorable feline is curiously scrutinizing a nearby object just outside of the frame. Perhaps it is contemplating an audacious leap from his companion's shoulder, ready to wreak charming, but mischievous havoc on some greenery .

Word count - 88 words

59. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #8 ✈️

A young woman and a skydiving instructor look up to the camera during their descent to document the experience. They are both smiling indicating that they are enjoying the experience, this is corroborated by the woman's "thumbs-up" gesture. The ground below them is rich green, indicating that they will be landing somewhere pastoral and bucolic .

Word count - 55

60. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #9 🐶

A woman and her canine companion sit in a cozy, yellow armchair . The woman is casually perusing a magazine and the dog is looking directly at the camera - he has his mouth wide open and ears pricked suggesting he is enthused by the photographer. Because the woman and dog are intimately sharing the seat and in such close proximity we can infer they are tremendous companions to each other. The sunshine peeking through, informal attire, and bare feet indicate the woman and dog are in their home.

Word count - 87

61. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #10 🏄‍♂️

A person is surfing a gargantuan wave at sunset. They are most likely riding ocean waves, given the turquoise hue and vast expanse of water in the distance. The person looks extremely focused, and their firm stance suggests they are an expert at the sport -- they might be at the beach to master or hone their skills further.

Word count - 58

62. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #11 🕒

A professionally dressed woman gently massages her forehead and temples, her elbows resting on the table, likely located in a board room. She is encircled by paperwork, her countenance stern and stressed, despite the massaging; it's as if she is trying to remain composed. Besides her are two men clad in impeccable black suits, presumably her colleagues. It is implied that the woman is overburdened by work and the requests being made either side of her.

Word count - 76

63. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #12 👧🏿

The image depicts two young girls communicating through a makeshift tin can telephone. The girl on the left is whispering into the cup while her companion is listening intently; given their solemn expressions and covert communication methods, perhaps they are exchanging secrets. Both girls are reclining on the grass denoting their intimate but casual relationship. The fact that they are outside and wearing sleeveless shirts suggests it is a spring or summer afternoon.

Word count - 73

64. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #13 🧘🏽

The photo displays what looks to be the commencement of a yoga class. The two prominent women in the frame are looking ahead, perhaps towards an instructor, and listening actively. They have unwavering focus as if they are trying to absorb the instructor's every word so they can replicate the instructor's poses later. The clean hardwood floors, gym attire, and yoga mats suggest that this is taking place in an upscale studio during daylight hours.

Word count - 75

65. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #14 🦷

A man and a woman are standing and brushing their teeth. Their intimate proximity, casual pajamas, and the private, pedestrian act they are performing imply they are a  cohabitating or married couple. Given that the scene is a reflection in a mirror illuminated by overhead light we can glean that they are in the bathroom at their shared home and that they are preparing for slumber as part of their nighttime regimen .

Word count - 72

66. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #15 🐎

A young woman is feeding a horse from her hands amidst the woodland. She dons sturdy cowboy boots, indicating her awareness of appropriate attire and footwear for equestrian pursuits. The horse radiates tranquility , as does his counterpart, implying they have a pre-established,  comfortable relationship. Sunlight filters through the trees and the woman wears a gossamer pink dress suggesting that it is a refreshing spring or summer morning.

Word count - 67

67. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #16 😴

A woman lays with her eyes shut in her bed. She is quite pallid hinting that she might be sick or melancholic . This is corroborated by the amount of natural light in the room, suggesting she is slumbering although it is day time. As her head is resting on her arm, it is possible she may be awake and just shutting her eyes to rest. The bedsheets, pillows, and her pyjamas are all pristine white showing that she meticulously takes care of her home.

Word count - 84

68. "Read, Then Write" Cue Card #17 ⛰️

A young man stands stoically atop a rock on a mountainside , seemingly enamored by the view. He holds a camera, suggesting that he was previously taking photos but is now stepping back to seep in Mother Nature's majesty. The mountain is dusted with snow and he is wearing a knitted hat, suggesting the mountain is in a place with a polar climate. He appears small and alone in the vast expanse , highlighting that this has been no small feat for him, but that he is determined to continue his voyage.

Word count - 90

"Interactive Reading" questions form part of your Literacy and Comprehension subscores. There are two sets of "Interactive Reading" questions, and each set has six questions. As you have two sets of questions and 7-8 minutes to complete them, you should aim to spend approximately 1 minute on each question.

69. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #1

70. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #2

71. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #3

72. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #4

73. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #5

74. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #6

75. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #7

76. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #8

77. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #9

78. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #10

79. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #11

80. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #12

81. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #13

82. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #14

83. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #15

84. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #16

85. "Interactive Reading" Cue Card #17

(86-102) "Writing Sample" Questions and Answers

"Writing Sample" questions only come up once on the Duolingo English Test and add to the Literacy and Production subscores. These questions ask you to construct a short essay in response to the prompt. While only 50 words and writing for at least three minutes are required to answer the question, we recommend that you use the full five minutes and write at least 150 words to get a high-scoring response.

86. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #1

The geography of the United States exerts a profound influence on its people and culture in many ways. Specifically, the fact that it is close to other countries, has a variety of landscapes, and contributes significiantly to global warming has shaped American culture.

Firstly , the USA’s immense size situates it in close proximity to a multitude of other countries. Consequently, the USA houses immigrants and expatriates from across the world and is frequently described as a “melting pot” of diverse cultures. For instance, the USA’s adjacency to Mexico has led to the incorporation of elements of Mexican culture in American culture: particularly Mexican cuisine and the Spanish language, in the states that border Mexico.

Secondly , the sheer size of the United States means it encompasses a wide variety of terrains and climates, which in turn forge a plethora of lifestyles. Alaska, for example, has polar climates, is geographically isolated from the continental US, and is surrounded by oceans and seas. As such, Alaskans are heavily involved in the fishing and tourism industry and lead a relatively subsistence lifestyle. This lifestyle contrasts drastically with the lifestyle in Nevada, which can be characterized by water conservation efforts, outdoor activities, and desert-themed arts and events – the result of its unique environment and scorching climate.

Lastly, in part due to the United States’ monumental size, it is one of the most significant contributors to global warming. The pernicious effects of climate change have led to floods, droughts, and forest fires in the USA, which substantially degrade its people’s quality of life and housing. Contributions to global warming have also bolstered the amount of research, funds, and studies dedicated towards protecting the earth. Arguably , global warming has also precipitated a culture of political division between citizens who are staunch supporters of policies reducing carbon emissions and those who gainsay them.

👉 You can see a breakdown of why this response scored as highly as it did on our blog .

87. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #2

Safeguarding the environment should be a priority for everyone. The importance of environment protection cannot be overstated because the depletion and pollution of our natural resources are already leading to disastrous effects on our climate, resulting in natural disasters that affect all of Earth's inhabitants.

One highly effective strategy to conserve natural resources and reduce waste is by taking short showers instead of lengthier ones or baths. Water is a finite resource, and by curbing the amount we use for personal hygiene, we take an important step towards a greener , more sustainable planet.

An equally vital strategy for waste reduction is to degrade or eliminate our meat consumption. The meat industry’s breeding practices are not only highly detrimental to animals but also pose significant environmental hazards. Too many people remain unaware of the CO2 emitted from cattle defecation , but the overpopulation of cattle for meat production has a lot to answer for regarding the depletion of the ozone layer.

Lastly , we can reduce waste and conserve resources by becoming mindful consumers, buying only what we need and using products entirely or attempting to repair them before purchasing another. Recycling materials when they are fully used also allows them to be repurposed into other objects.

The catastrophic effects of human life on Earth are growing more urgent by the day and will soon be irreversible ; it’s everyone’s responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint to ensure our Earth is inhabitable for the generations to come. As stated, a good start to individually reduce our waste and conserve resources is by taking shorter showers, reducing meat intake, and reevaluating purchasing and disposal habits.

88. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #3

Education not only opens opportunities that would otherwise be closed, but it also broadens one's mindset and understanding of the world around them.

The higher education system in the United States is typically governed by a liberal arts philosophy, the idea that one should explore multiple subjects in addition to their primary area of study. I appreciate this educational philosophy because the academic disciplines doesn’t just appear in a vacuum, they are highly interlinked. Learning in a way that appreciates the connection between subjects has been important for me for integrate and connect some of my more disparate interests and skills - allowing me to thrive in both areas without having to sacrifice one.

Education in the USA is extremely expensive, particularly high-quality tertiary education. This concerns me because everyone is deserving of an education, and education is often the only pathway out of poverty. Achieving a scholarship to study changed my life, giving me opportunities, networks, and knowledge that I wouldn't have otherwise gained.

Finally, the education system in the U.S. highly encourages and values extracurricular activities and sports which isn't the case in many other countries. I feel that this is a great mindset to have, because then admissions committees look at the "whole" person comprehensively , not just their scores on a test. Further, extracurriculars certainly foster social skills and skills that can be applied in the workplace , which is a great way to equip students for real-world scenarios and their future careers. I certainly found that my extra-curriculars helped to shape the social, leadership, and practical skills I needed in my line of work.

As such, education is important to me because it provides opportunities, helps to prepare me for the workplace and pursue multidisciplinary studies -- although the US education system isn't without its pitfalls .

89. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #4

Bike-sharing programs have recently been introduced to cities across the globe. Overall, I think they are a positive addition to urban life considering their low carbon emissions, inexpensive prices, and ability to elevate their users' health.

One benefit of bike-sharing programs in cities is that it is far better for the environment. Bikes, unlike cars and trains, do not require fossil fuels to run. As such, when citizens utilize shared bikes this can reduce the negative environmental impact that often comes with urban settings . In turn, bikers will also save more money than they would have using a car or public transport for their commutes .

Another benefit of bike-sharing programs is that it encourages exercise and healthy habits. Having easy access to a bike is likely to make a lot of city- dwellers engage in physical activity, helping citizens to improve their mental and physical wellbeing and potentially extend their lifespan .

A drawback of bike-sharing programs is that they may lead to more biking accidents. The more bikers on the road in a busy metropolis, the more opportunities for dangerous collisions with motor vehicles. In turn, pedestrians are also more likely to get hit by a bike if there are more of them available. As such, the city must ensure it creates plenty of bike lanes if they are implementing a bike-sharing program.

In conclusion, I believe that bike-sharing programs are a positive addition to urban life helping its inhabitants exercise more, save money, and reduce their carbon footprint. However, it's important to remember to bike safely and responsibly .

90. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #5

Team sports are advantageous because they are highly social. When young children engage in team sports, they will likely learn how to cooperate and work with others in ways that they wouldn't have from individual sports. Team sports are also a fantastic way to make friends and acquire social skills. Being on a team for your sport of choice is also extremely motivating because you have others who simultaneously rely on and inspire you. By contrast, in individual sports, all motivation must come from within. If you want to remain a valued member of the team becoming lax is not an option!

However, a favorable aspect of individual sports, and why I personally prefer it, is that you can train for competitions based on your own schedule and needs. In this way, sports can fit into your lifestyle more seamlessly and practice can be tailored to your own areas of weakness. In a team, everyone's needs have to be balanced. In individual sports, your training needs and goals are the only priority.

Individual sports also require self-reliance and mental resilience . When you can't rely on others to "carry" the team, then you end up working even harder and taking on failures more personally. This can make a person mentally tougher and more intrinsically motivated, which we know from sport psychology research makes it more likely they will succeed in their endeavors.

As such, while team sports are inherently more social and motivating, individual sports foster mental toughness and training can be tailored to the individual's preferences, needs, and schedules. Therefore, I would choose partaking in an individual sport over a team sport any day.

91. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #6

Music provides a distraction from the hustle and noise of everyday life. Whether I am working at my job, working out at the gym, traveling, or just relaxing, I always have my headphones in so that I can listen to my favorite music. Music has a big influence on me and my emotions in these moments, making duller moments more interesting. Part of the reason one of my favorite music genres is hair metal is because it is very lively and fast-paced, thus it can get my adrenaline pumping in otherwise mundane instances.

Music can also provide a bonding moment between friends, family, and acquaintances. Some of my favorite hair metal bands were introduced to me by my father. Overlaps in our music taste have become shared interest between us and we connect over it frequently. It also often encourages my dad to share memories and stories from when he was young and listening to these bands, which can be interesting and enjoyable for me to hear.

Finally, music can be matched to your emotions and a great way to mitigate negative feelings. If I am stressed due to an incoming deadline at work, I can put on relaxing music to balance out the stress I feel at work. If I am lifting weights, I can listen to energetic music so that I am motivated to lift more. Music can influence the way a person feels in a particular moment and balance out any negative emotions they may be feeling with positive ones.

92. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #7

Volunteering is a great way to gift one's time in order to help those less fortunate than them. Though volunteering contributes to helping other people, it also helps build character for the person who is volunteering their time. One of the main benefits of volunteering is to cultivate empathy . By volunteering one's time, one can learn of the many different obstacles that people suffer in their lifetimes that the volunteer may have not had to overcome in theirs. Meeting people who battle hunger, homelessness, or other financial hardships allows the volunteers to put themselves in the metaphorical footsteps of those in need.

Another benefit of volunteering that helps the volunteer grow is learning a strong work ethic. Working a full day at a young age in order to help others can teach young people responsibility before they enter the workforce . It is important to learn these skills and serving others who need the help is a great way to understand the importance and payoff of one's hard work. I volunteered to build homes in Kentucky when I was in high school. Meeting the people of an area where I was not from allowed me to empathize with people in hard situations as well as learn to work long hours towards a common goal.

Finally, and most importantly, volunteering has the power to transform the lives of the people in the community. By providing people less fortunate with your resources – be it time, money, energy or all three – you can make an invaluable difference.

93. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #8

There are a plethora of advantages and disadvantages to the popularization of social media platforms. Firstly , because most users only post images or videos themselves on their best days this has led to a society that constantly compares itself to perfection. Particularly for young women, who are subject to unattainable beauty standards, this can be extremely detrimental to one’s self-esteem. Indeed, it has been shown that social media usage can exacerbate various mental health disorders.

Another negative aspect of social media is that it reduces our attention span. Because we have a plethora of content now at our fingertips -- often emotionally salient media -- we have become somewhat addicted to mindless scrolling. Not only does this waste time, but as with any addiction, it makes it harder to go without one's phone for a significant portion of time. This has affected me personally because I found that, before becoming mindful of my social media usage, I spent any spare time I had scrolling on my phone particularly when I doing mundane tasks like waiting for a bus.

However, social media does allow individuals to find and join communities of like-minded individuals, supporting niche interests and hobbies. For example, there are plenty of accounts willing to support new dilettantes in learning arts and crafts skills and those users can provide a lot of support burgeoning artists -- I have benefitted from this first hand.

Another positive of social media is that it has been pivotal in raising awareness about various social, political, and environmental issues.  Without social media, movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo might not have made such significant traction so quickly. It's a great way to not only educate people on these matters but reach a lot of people with the potential for action all at once.

In summary, social media can be a great tool for learning a new skill or rallying support for a benevolent cause -- however, users should remain diligent of how it impacts their mental and cognitive health. If you find yourself comparing yourself to someone else on social media or turning to it whenever your brain is unoccupied it might be time to take a break!

94. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #9

Global warming is primarily caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial production. However, as humans cause global warming, we can also attempt to reverse it both on a micro and macro level.

As stated, one significant contributor to climate change is the burning of fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels emits greenhouse gasses which trap heat from the sun, subsequently warming the earth. One potential solution to this is for countries to invest in and implement renewable energy sources such as wind and solar panels. On an individual level, someone might consider driving an eco-friendly car or walking/ biking to work. An ambitious person might also try to implement solar panels on their own property to generate energy!

Deforestation also hinders attempts to mitigate global warming as cutting down trees reduces the Earth’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide.  One potential solution to this is simply to stop chopping down these trees via conservation efforts, we might also consider reforestation . Given that it's usually larger institutions that are cutting down this natural resource, the best thing for an individual to do is to support reforestation and conservation efforts by becoming a stalwart proponent of such efforts through activism and voting.

Another cause of climate change is industrial processes. Factories in particular release greenhouse gasses at extortionate rates. One potential solution to this is an international agreement preventing emissions from companies reaching too high a level. On an individual level, we can also reduce our purchasing rates, only buying what we need and recycling what we don't.

As such, industrial processes, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels have seriously damaged the only planet we have. To fix the damage we've caused, politicians should seek to implement renewable energy sources, foster international industry agreements, and support reforestation/conservation efforts. As an individual, you can support these efforts by just being a conscious consumer, reconsidering your methods of transportation, and driving your efforts towards activism and voting campaigns.

95. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #10

Extracurricular activities are one of the most beneficial and enjoyable aspects of a college or high school education. Firstly , extracurriculars are highly social. This can aid young people in making friends, building important social skills, and even helping the wider community. I personally benefitted from this when I joined the school newspaper, before joining I was incredibly introverted and diffident -- after joining I had more friends and a newfound confidence.

Another benefit of extracurriculars is that they provide a safe space to explore your interests and develop your skills. Many people who join a club are merely dabbling in the subject, meaning that they are also on the same level as you, taking the pressure off. In turn, one can better understand what they do and don't enjoy and what they are and aren't good at. For example, I not only really honed my non-fiction writing skills at the school newspaper by learning from others, but I also learned that this would be a potential career path for me.

Finally, extracurriculars can provide college and career advancement. Having clubs on your resume can be a great way to show employers or admissions committees that you have the skills, leadership qualities, and teamwork abilities that they seek. It also shows that you are dedicated to learning and participating in your school’s culture. Many people find that their extracurricular activities in college not only provided them with the skills needed to excel in the workplace , but also interest and impress future employers.

As such, when debating joining an extracurricular club, consider all the benefits you will likely reap: new friends, new skills, and a boost in your career and education prospects.

96. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #11

A good friend is supportive, fun, and challenges you.

A few years ago, I had a difficult choice to make and was experiencing some emotional turmoil over the decision. I called my friend and she offered to house me for a week while I figured out what to do. Being reliable in this way, and willing to help at the time I needed it most was extremely meaningful to me and demonstrated just how supportive she was no matter what I chose. Support like this from friends is invaluable in times of need because it enables you to focus on what matters in that moment and feel like you have allies in your corner.

Another important, undervalued quality in friends is their ability to distract you with fun conversations and activities. During that hard time, I was fairly despondent and gloomy, but my friend was able to distract me by making me laugh and taking me to places she knew I'd enjoy. These fun moments shared with friends can be both enriching to life and incredibly important during challenging times.

Finally, a good friend teaches and challenges you. When I was making my decision, my friend didn't just give me "the right answer", but she questioned me intensely about the choices and offered her unique perspective on this situation. This inspired great self-reflection in myself, and I came away from that trip sure about what I was going to do and confident in my decision.

As such, reliable, challenging, fun friendships are integral to leading a fulfilling life. Not only do friends like this support and guide us through life's twists and turns, but they also elevate the good times making them more meaningful and joyful.

97. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #12

My favorite sport to engage in is long-distance running. This activity is important to me for countless reasons, but in this essay, I will outline the most important three. Firstly , going for a run or jog through my neighborhood helps to clear my mind. When I'm running, I find my mind is more focused and I can really think through the things that were plaguing me. On the same note, running is a great way to spend quality time with yourself, because usually I am alone and there aren't any distractions from my thoughts.

Secondly , going for a run is extremely enjoyable for me. The act itself releases endorphins , but also taking in the view as I run can elevate any bad mood. Running not only encourages me to go outside and enjoy my surroundings , but I also get the chance to listen to music and podcasts simultaneously. For these reasons, it becomes something that I look forward to, which is not the case for other sports!

Finally, running has really improved my physical and mental health. Before I started running, I often found that I didn’t have an outlet for my stress -- I was also not very fit! Through running, I have discovered a significant improvement in both areas. My stronger, slimmer build has also given me an invaluable boost of self-esteem, not to mention more energy and strength to partake in my daily activities.

As such, running is my favorite sport and will likely remain so for the forseeable future.

98. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #13

Studying alone and studying in groups each have their merits and drawbacks , and the most effective choice depends on the subject being studied and the nature of the pending assignment.

One benefit to studying alone is that you can customize the pace at which you study and the content you focus on. For instance, if you are someone who likes to take long breaks between chapters studying alone is probably the best method because you can determine your own break schedule. Additionally , being able to choose to study longer on areas of personal weakness to you and spend less time on subjects already mastered enables you to better target your study time. This might be the best choice for tests and subjects that involve a lot of memorizations, such as a science course, because you can dedicate your time to understanding and remembering the areas that are more challenging to you.

Another advantage of independent studying is that you won’t get distracted by your peers. When you are studying in isolation there isn't any temptation to chat to your peers or take a break when you don't need one. This can be beneficial and effective when you have a test coming up very soon and time is limited.

On the other hand, when studying in a group you can benefit from others' strengths. If you are weak in an area, but your study partner is strong in that area they can teach you valuable knowledge and skills. In a group, you can also work out the answers to problems that you wouldn't have been able to work out or would have taken a long time to figure out alone. In this way, we can save time and effort by studying in a group; you can also get other perspectives on a text, which can be helpful in classes that rely on interpretation.

Another advantage to studying in a group is that it provides social interaction and accountability. When we study with others, we have an external motivator as well as an intrinsic one and this can make us more determined to complete our outstanding tasks. Further, many people -- particularly extraverts – will find studying less dull and onerous when they are in company.

As such, I believe that studying alone and in a group are both highly beneficial, but should be selected based on the task and subject at hand.

99. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #14

Artists and scientists alike propel our society towards progression and innovation.

Since the dawn of intelligent civilization humans have used and viewed art as a form of understanding the world around them and expressing their emotions -- it is part of human nature. In modern day, artists contribute to society by entertaining us, inspiring us, and providing us with an escape from quotidian life . This was most noticeable during the COVID-19 pandemic . When people couldn't venture outside, they turned to their favorite movies and music. In turn, the absence of new art and the inability to go to in-person art-related events during the pandemic was sorely missed.

Another contribution artists make to society is through the social commentary they provide. One example is the way that Banksy, an artist, uses his art to demonstrate the absurdity of war and over consumerism . For example, when he sold a piece for a small fortune, he made sure that it self-shredded upon being sold -- a message against the uber-elite. In commenting on society in this way, artists also heighten our awareness to important issues that require our attention.

Scientists, of course, are equally important. Scientists’ work frequently culminates in medical breakthroughs that can save lives. Again, during the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists were the ones that banded together to create a vaccine in rapid time, this ultimately saved the lives of countless individuals and meant that we could eventually return to our normal daily lives.

Scientists also help to create technological advancements. The technology recently developed by scientists and engineers at NASA has made it possible to explore space, an unimaginable achievement a hundred years ago. Space exploration is perhaps one of the most important endeavors of humankind because it answers questions about who we are and where we came from.

However, whilst both are equally important, I think that artists are more valued in U.S society. Whilst its true many artists don't get compensated fairly and art/music students are often shunned by their STEM counterparts, the average person would be hard pressed to name 10 modern day scientists. By contrast, ask anyone to name 10 modern day singers, musicians, or artists, and they'd be able to do so in seconds. Further, artists frequently earn much more than our scientists, and reap a greater following. Furthermore , during the COVID-19 pandemic we found that celebrities' guidance was more often followed than that of the virologists!

100. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #15

A few years ago, I took a last-minute trip to Los Angeles. I had never been there before, and unexpectedly, it made a long-lasting personal and cultural impact on me.

Firstly , LA deviated from all my expectations. I expected to see glamour and flamboyance at every turn. Instead, there was a lot of homelessness and boarded up businesses, even along the Walk of Fame. This was shocking and almost paradoxical to me, that lavishness and prodigal waste could be in such close proximity to widespread poverty. This also showed me that, both personally and as a culture, humans often view times and places (sometimes times and places they have never lived in) with nostalgia . Whilst LA might have once been the glamorous place that is shown in movies fifty years ago, in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, now it is a place in dire need of resources.

Culturally , I did learn a lot about movies from the various cinema museums we attended. This gave me a greater veneration and appreciation for the USA’s enormous contributions to cinema and explained how movie magic was made throughout history. It was illuminating to discover why people watch American movies across the world, even when the films aren’t in their native language! The USA is certainly unique in this area, and as a movie buff, the knowledge I acquired was truly inspiring.

Finally, seeing LA's walk of fame did connect the dots for me on why people clamor to this city and devour all their resources to do so, despite the slim odds. Seeing the names of so many powerful, talented artists in one place helped me grasp why people sacrifice so much to "Make it" in LA, a place rife with financial risk and potential turmoil.

As such, the trip taught me a lot historically and culturally about LA specifically and the USA, but it also taught me personally about the dangers of nostalgia. Indeed, there is a reason the term 'nostalgia' derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain).

101. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #16

Video games have a reputation for fostering violent behavior and distracting teenagers from their homework, but for the majority of people -- myself included -- they can be a great source of personal growth. Specifically, video games can bolster your hand-eye coordination, cognitive functioning, and creativity .

Firstly , video games frequently involve quickly using motor skills in reaction to visual input . In turn, it has been corroborated that hand-eye coordination improves significantly by playing video games. I have also found this to be the case personally. Prior to playing video games, I had quite a poor hand-eye coordination; now I am much more skilled in this area. In my youth, this also taught me that investing time in weaker areas leads to tremendous rewards.

Another area of personal growth I attribute to video games is in cognitive skills. Video games have been shown to boost your spatial navigation abilities, memory, and concentration. This is in part because a lot of video game maps require "cognitive mapping" to progress. Video games may also involve puzzles that require full attention and memory skills. Like hand-eye coordination, I have personally benefitted from honing these skills through video games; I am much better able to navigate my real-life surroundings , for instance.

Finally, video games encourage people to think outside the box. For example, if there is a hard puzzle in a game and your current strategy for completing it isn't working, you must utilize psychological flexibility in your approach and consider other options -- thus, using your imagination to problem-solve. Further, many games also involve a general sense of artistic creativity, for example, in designing characters and/or storylines . As such, video games have greatly improved mine and many others’ creativity.

In conclusion, whilst video games are often snubbed as a hobby, they can be instrumental in acquiring skills that can be applied to real-life settings such as adaptive thought and imagination, spatial navigation and memory, and of course, hand-eye coordination.

102. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #17

👌Please note, all advanced words scoring 155-160 are bolded.

While reading books and watching movies are both enjoyable and beneficial in their own right, I prefer reading for several reasons.

Firstly , books often include more intricacies , details, and information than their cinematic counterparts. Consider the Harry Potter series as an example: although the Harry Potter movies are captivating , the directors cut a plethora of subplots to keep the movies concise . As a result, certain aspects of the movies don't fully make sense as viewers lack the explanations and full character development acquired in the written series (i.e. the fate of Gildroy Lockhart).

Another advantage of books is that reading requires utilizing our imagination to fill in the gaps between words. As such, more cognitive skills are being honed when reading books compared to watching a movie which can be psychologically profitable in the long term. The use of imagination also means that more complex and fantastical plot lines can take place in books, as we can imagine literally anything. By comparison, the cinematic universe has physical and monetary constraints.

Lastly , reading a book takes a plethora of hours whereas a movie is usually only two hours. This means that books can keep you occupied for longer, making them more economically valuable.

In conclusion, I prefer reading books and find them more beneficial than watching movies due to their more detailed narratives, cognitive benefits, and long-lasting engagement.

Word Count - 224

☝️ Study smarter, not harder! As "firstly" and "lastly" are both high-scoring words, you may want to start your first and last examples (from the I LAST method ) this way to make sure you are including advanced vocabulary with minimal planning.

104. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #18

While both teamwork and independent work have their advantages and disadvantages, I prefer working collaboratively over working individually for a multitude of reasons.

An advantage of working in a team is that you can leverage the expertise , skills, and knowledge of others. This is particularly beneficial when one is lacking proficiency in a specific area. For example, in a publishing company writers often work alongside editors because whilst writers likely excel in content creation, they may lack the grammatical finesse and training that editorial staff have, and vice versa. Another advantage of working in a team is that colleagues may notice an error in your work that you have overlooked. In the content of publishing , this might be a punctuation error or grammatical rule that the author is unaware of.

It's true that, when working independently, distractions from others are mitigated because you do not have to ensure everyone reaches consensus on an issue, unlike in a team setting. However, this benefit does not compensate for the increased workload when you are the sole employee. When just one person handles a project, all the work is done by one person resulting in a slower completion rate and an elevated risk of burnout.

Therefore, while there are pros and cons to both methods, working in a team is preferable because it means that the skills and insights of others can be incorporated and the burden of the workload is shared.

Word count - 239

105. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #19

Personally, I favor in-store shopping over online shopping, but there are several advantages and disadvantages to both that are worth considering.

One considerable benefit of in-store shopping is the ability for consumers to physically examine the product. This means shoppers can better ascertain the fit and quality of items like clothes and furniture. However, in-store shopping is of limited convenience because stores often have restricted hours and are closed on national holidays; comparatively, online shopping is available around the clock!

In the same vein, online shoppers can make purchases from the comfort of their homes, with packages delivered right to their doorsteps . Subsequently, online shopping is far less time-consuming and effortful -  a tremendous bonus for busy individuals. However, it's worth noting that because packages are constantly being delivered to customers' doorsteps , the environmental impact of online shopping is egregious . Not only do the packages have to be shipped to consumers via an amalgamation of fossil-fueled transportation methods but they also have to be packaged in a way that they won't break during transit leading to increased usage of plastic-heavy containers and other shipping materials.

In conclusion, while online shopping is indisputably more convenient, its environmental impact alongside the inability to assess an item's quality/fit digitally means that I will remain partial to in-store shopping at least until online stores significantly ameliorate their carbon footprint.

Word count - 222

106. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #20

International travel is replete with benefits including but not limited to, personal growth, heightened language proficiency , and a broader worldview.

Partaking in overseas excursions usually requires stepping outside of one's comfort zone. Consequently, sojourners typically undergo substantial personal development. This is because challenging oneself is the most effective way to gain self-insight, and travelers are bound to encounter numerous challenges along the way! I personally experienced this on a solo trip to Berlin. Initially, I was nervous about traveling alone for the first time, but being alone in a new country and city helped me gain independence and a more lucid understanding of where my interests lay now that others' preferences weren't part of the equation. Moreover , becoming lost in new territory -- whilst uncomfortable -- taught me vital navigation and self-advocacy skills.

The second advantage to a voyage abroad is that there is nothing more immersive than being in a country where the native language is the one you are learning. While in Berlin, I found that my German improved much quicker than it ever had in the classroom.

The final reason is that through traveling somewhere new one acquires a more global perspective through exposure to diverse viewpoints and unique experiences. Although I was familar with World War Two history from an American standpoint, in Berlin I was able to visit monuments, memorials, and museums, thereby developing a more comprehensive historical understanding, particularly of how post-war Germany influenced the modern world.

Whilst these are not all the benefits of studying abroad, one should remember the strides in personal development, language, and globalized knowledge, that they will likely make when contemplating international travel.

Word count - 271

107. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #21

There are significant costs and benefits to both digital and face-to-face communication. However, in my personal view, the advantages of cybernetic contact outweigh the costs.

Digital correspondence is far more convenient than face-to-face interactions. To meet face-to-face, one has to travel, and this is nearly impossible if the other party is located far away or in a different country. The world is growing ever more globalized, and digital communication serves as both a catalyst and an ancillary to this trend. It is the quickest , easiest way for those who live away from their families, friends, and colleagues to nourish their pre-existing relationships and form new ones.

It's true that face-to-face communication makes it easier to read non-verbal and paraverbal cues. Perceiving tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions can be imperative to prevent the miscommunications that frequently occur in digital communications, such as text. However, astute individuals can quickly learn how to express themselves clearly in the digital realm or utilize video chat features.

Further, face-to-face interaction has a severe disadvantage: it can be distracting in some contexts and environments. Since many jobs transitioned to remote work post- pandemic , there is less distracting face-to-face conversation in the workplace, meaning that work can be completed more efficiently. Texts, emails, or chat pop-ups in the workplace can convey messages just as clearly, but don't require immediate response. As such, if one gets a digital message at work, they can prioritize finishing their current task before responding, a luxury that is practically impossible in face-to-face settings .

For these reasons and more, I prefer digital communication; not only is it more convenient and less distracting, but it also contributes to creating a more well-connected world.

Word count - 280

108. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #22

A career demands long hours of concentration, including the time spent commuting to the workplace. Certain positions also involve a level of emotional labor, such as addressing individuals' concerns in a customer service or healthcare roles. On the other hand, maintaining a home, spending time with loved ones, and finding time to relax after long hours of work can also be challenging. This can be particularly difficult for working mothers who are often unfairly expected to work as many hours as their spouses, whilst also fully managing the domestic sphere.

One main strategy to maintain a good work-life balance is to prioritize certain responsibilities. If there is an essential task that needs to be done at work or home, one should focus on completing that above all else. Smaller, less time-sensitive tasks should be given less priority or delegated to a colleague/spouse.

Another strategy is to schedule recreational time where a person can fully rest. If someone struggles to relax, they might consider turning off distractions, such as work phones,  so they can focus on spending time outside of work doing things that they can enjoy or engaging in self-care. This helps to alleviate any stress caused by overwork and prevent burn-out.

Reducing commute time or working remotely may also help to relieve stress by increasing the amount of time that one is able to spend on other activities outside of a work environment.

In conclusion, maintaining a work-life balance can be difficult due to the numerous responsibilities involved in maintaining both aspects of one's life, but one can achieve a better balance via prioritization, scheduled relaxation time, and reducing commute time.  

Word count - 270

109. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #23

Choosing a career path can be one of the most daunting choices of one's life because the majority of people spend a good proportion of their lives in the workplace . In order to make this important decision, one should consider three major factors: their values, their interests, and their strengths.

Discovering and identifying one's values is vital when selecting a career path; having a career that is meaningful to you and makes an impact in an area you are passionate about will provide you with a sense of purpose and  keep you determined for years to come. For instance, I am extremely passionate about health care and aim to make a difference in this field, as such I have dedicated my career to it.

Secondly , your interests should be imperative to your career selection. If you enjoy the work tasks you undertake and the topics fascinate you, you are far more likely to enjoy your job.  This is because its human nature to enter a state of "flow" when working on something you are wholly focused on. This is when we are most at peace and at our most creative. To achieve flow and be compensated for it should be the highest aspiration in a career search.

Finally, picking a job that sings to your strengths is crucial when picking a career. For example, someone might be extremely passionate about the way that art impacts their community and they may find "flow" when creating art, but if they aren't proficient in any art medium then they are unlikely to succeed in the field; it will be an uphill battle and they'd be best to improve their skills first at the very least.

In conclusion, when picking a career it's important to be discerning and engage in some honest self-discovery work. Specifically, one should ask themselves: what are my strengths, what are my values, and where do my interests lie?

Word count - 315

110. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #24

There are several advantages and disadvantages to online and traditional education, but I personally prefer in-person classes because they foster networking and allow for hands-on learning.

Traditional classroom learning makes interactions with peers and professors seemless. When able to interact instantaneously with individuals in the class, they are bound to get to know you better and quicker. This can be a great way for students to make friends, which studies have shown is crucial in preventing drop-out.  The direct interaction provided by in-person classes also opens students up to extracurricular opportunities from professors, not to mention immediate feedback and help with challenging topics.

While an in-person education tends to be more costly, and online classrooms often provide the opportunity to complete tasks on your own time (freeing up the opportunity for low-income students to work, for example), there is one major cost of online classrooms that cannot be ignored...

When one is taught online they miss out on hands-on learning, such as laboratory classes for science majors or art studio work for art majors. This means that students may be deprived of the potential to utilize a campus' resources and gain experience that is applicable and translatable to the workplace . These experiences make someone stand out from the crowd as job candidates post-graduation.

As such, I recommend in-person classes if one can afford to attend, but online classes are still a great opportunity for those who cannot. One should deeply consider the pros and cons of each learning environment listed before choosing one or the other.

Word count - 252

111. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #25

Working remotely has its advantages and disadvantages, but overall, I favor working from home for several reasons.

Firstly , working from home eliminates the need for commuting to the workplace, saving significant time and money otherwise spent on transportation.

Secondly , working from home promotes a better work-life equilibrium. When working from home, it's possible to do domestic tasks  simultaneously, for example, putting clothes in the washing machine prior to a long meeting. Subsequently, more time can be spent outside of work hours relaxing with family/friends and/or on recreational activities. Being able to spend more time on rest and recreation is undeniably beneficial preventing burn out and fostering a healthier lifestyle.

However, there are certain drawbacks to working remotely that should be considered. It can be challenging to maintain a work-life balance when working from home because your home is essentially your office and vice versa. Some people can find it tempting, for example, to check their work phone or email during their free time leading to blurred boundaries and half-hearted committment to both work and home life. Furthermore , one certainly misses out on the networking opportunities and social aspects of working in-person when remote. However, a highly determined individual is still able to network and socialize in their own time outside of the work sphere... indeed, as a remote worker they have more time for it!

As such, in my mind the pros of working remotely outweigh the cons. Before taking a remote job, however, you should consider your ability to create boundaries between work and home life and whether you are motivated enough to create connections outside of work.

Word count - 266

112. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #26

Life in a small town is considerably more cost-effective than city life. The rent for minuscule apartments in many cities across the world is extortionate , whereas in a small town you can get a decadent home for a fraction of the cost. As such, many people looking to start a family will lean towards a more bucolic or suburban lifestyle. Despite this, I am still partial to living in a large metropolitan area for several reasons.

Small towns often have fewer career and recreational opportunities. By comparison, in a large city the opportunities are endless: there are a plethora of activities one can choose from on the weekend and a multitude of work experiences available because cities tend to have more people and more resources. An astute young professional can certainly use these opportunities to their advantage.

However, living in a big city isn't all sunshine and rainbows -- becoming cosmopolitan comes with a cost. The crime rates in large cities compared to small towns are exorbitant . Further, there is less of a neighbourly feel to big cities, meaning that one is less likely to be able to depend on their fellow city dwellers to mitigate a crisis.

As such, moving to the city is a great opportunity to broaden networks and horizons, particularly for young, unmarried individuals, but relocators must be prepared to spend much more money on rent and acquire some safety tools and street smarts before the move.

113. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #27

Incorporating regular physical exercise into your routine bolsters your sleep hygiene, mental health, and physical health. There are numerous  ways to engage in physical activity, from choosing to walk rather than drive to work or school, partaking in recreational sports with friends, or working out at home or in a gym.

One of the most underestimated benefits of physical exercise is the way it remediates sleep quality. Exercising before bed promotes a faster sleep onset and deeper REM sleep. This is because exercise triggers the release of endorphins in the brain, reducing our stress levels, and better equipping us for a good night's rest. One way someone might try to reap these benefits is by going to the gym and/or working out from home an hour or so before bedtime.

Another valuable benefit of exercise is its influence on mental health. As previously mentioned, the endorphins released during exercise help to demote stress and anxiety. Exercise can also be a great way to make or sustain friendships and bolster one's self-esteem. To gain these social benefits consider joining a sports team or participating in a sports-related activity with a friend.

Finally, exercise also enhances our physical health. Correlational studies show that just twenty minutes of exercise a day can prevent the evolution of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Exercise can also placate pernicious symptoms of pre-existing disorders such as arthritis, depression, endometriosis, and fibromyalgia. As such, if you wish to ameliorate a condition or prevent the development of one, you might try to incorporate exercise in your daily life by simply opting for a brisk walk to work, school, or the supermarket as opposed to driving.

In conclusion, physical exercise has monumental benefits and can be incorporated into one's lifestyle in plenty of ways, to suit the individual.

Word count - 297

114. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #28

Whilst I am a dilettante in the area, crocheting has already significantly enriched my life by becoming a source of stress relief and social interaction. Crocheting has also taught me valuable skills, notably patience and creativity .

Crocheting is a form of needlework that involves looping yarn with a hook to create textile pieces. It is so intricate and time-consuming that there is no man-made machine that can replicate its work unlike other garment-making techniques such as knitting.

As the patterns are so convoluted , it requires endless patience to master. However, once mastered the creative opportunities are limitless , which is the main reason I enjoy it. Dealing with complex stitches also demands such high attention to detail that it focuses the mind and alleviates the stress of any bad day -- it is almost meditative !

Another aspect of crocheting that I enjoy and benefit from is the community surrounding it. Like any art form, there are lots of people on social media and in person who are eager to teach you new techniques and share their creations. Finding fellow crocheters always provides an instant bonding opportunity in my experience.

Subsequently, I recommend crocheting to anyone who wishes to develop their creativity skills, patience, and social network or simply reduce their stress levels. If that isn't enough to convince you - the unique, handmade items you can craft (exactly to your tastes) most definitely will!

Word count - 229

115. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #29

Learning from failure can be even more valuable than learning from  success because it helps us to identify our weaknesses and adapt accordingly, build resilience and motivation, and develop empathy and humility toward others.

When we fail, we are presented with an opportunity for self-discovery; to examine what went wrong, how it went wrong, and why. Subsequently, self-exploration in the face of failure often leads us to target our flaws and prevent the recurrence of mistakes. For example, if someone were to take the Duolingo English Test and score lower than desired, this can be a great chance to identify and improve their skills in lower-scoring areas.

Failure also promotes resilience and motivation; when we fail we want to prove to ourselves that we can do better. As a result, we often become more driven to succeed. The author, Stephen King, is a paragon of self-determination. He, and many other authors, were rejected numerous times before a publisher accepted their work, but they responded to these failures with a more dogged drive. He is now exalted globally as the "King of Horror".

Finally, failure can make us more empathetic and humble. When we fail and overcome failure, we can better understand the failures of others and guide them towards their best selves. Some of the best leaders in the world are those that tried and failed before they succeeded; this is because they  use their experiences to relate to the people they supervise. By contrast, some of the worst bosses and leaders are those that demand perfection -- they will never be satisfied because it cannot be achieved, and their workers are more likely to seek superior mentorship elsewhere.

In conclusion, when you fail, try to see it as an opportunity to improve your skills, motivate yourself, and display empathy towards the shortcomings of others.

Word count - 197

116. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #30

The rapid advancement in technology development and social media utilization has revolutionized human communication. A significant proportion of interactions now occur in the digital sphere, necessitating thorough examination of the positive and negative effects of social media on relationships.

Social media has nourished some relationships that would have otherwise withered. For instance, I have observed that social media is a tremendous ancillary for international students, enabling them to easily maintain communications with loved ones in their native countries in a way that wasn't achievable before social media.

Moreover , social media has transformed the job-seeking market. It is now considerably easier to broaden one's professional networks, via LinkedIn. This can be a game- changer when seeking employment because connections with potential employers can be established quickly and from anywhere in the world.

However, social media has led to decreased productivity and lost time. Like most young people, I find that a significant amount of time is squandered on fruitless social media browsing , time that would be much better spent fostering in-person interpersonal relationships.

Further, social media interactions are rife with misinformation . Anyone can share anything online, leading to non-experts perpetuating harmful inaccuracies both unknowingly and maliciously with the intent to misguide and prey on the vulnerable. Consequently, relationships can form or develop based on distorted judgment .

In conclusion, one should certainly leverage the benefits of social media interactions, such as global connectivity for leisure and business relationships, while remaining savvy to productivity loss and misinformation.

117. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #31

Technology has catalyzed globalization, and vice versa. While globalization has its advantages and disadvantages, I firmly believe its benefits surpass its detriments .

Firstly , globalization has facilitated the effortless exchange of ideas, technology, and research. When ideas can be shared in this way, it prevents repeating work that has already been done and instead directs efforts to novelty. Building upon the work of scientists and engineers globally has led to innovation and progress at unprecedented rates; this was evident in the swift, favorable development and dissemination of the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, COVID-19 and other pandemics would arguably not have occurred without globalization: when citizens are traveling between countries, diseases can spread rapidly without constraint. We will likely be untangling the repercussions of COVID-19 for decades to come.

A common argument against globalization is that it leads to culture loss. Proponents of this viewpoint argue that as people become "citizens of the world," the countries they visit become enmeshed with their native culture, as the "citizen" become enmeshed with their new culture in a synergy . As such, the concern is that each country then becomes homogenous leaving rich tapestries of culture to expire.

Whilst this might have some truth, I believe that exposure to different cultures and lifestyles propelled by globalization mostly leads to a greater understanding of the world alongside cultural sensitivity and awareness. Consequently, despite the potential for diseases  spread and culture loss,  the benefits of globalization outweigh the negatives.

Word count - 236

118. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #32

"Friends are the family you chose" is a platitude that resonates with many people. Friendships not only provide us with enjoyable memories but also impact our personal growth and well-being in countless ways.

Medical studies have demonstrated that  loneliness is a killer. Hand-in-hand with this, evidence suggests that having a durable friendship network extends our lifespan and provides a buffer against mental health disorders and symptoms. This is in part because friendships reduce our stress  and cortisol levels and actually, neurobiologically, provide us with a boost of helpful hormones like oxytocin . So, the next time your mom tells you to do your homework instead of going to the movies, remind her that hanging out with friends is good for you!

In the same vein, friends can provide us with emotional and practical support in strenuous situations. When someone is undergoing a stressful life event, such as bereavement , a friend can provide a listening ear or help you navigate the crisis. Upon recognizing that a friend is in distress, a good friend will remind the person to engage in self-care and healthy habits and steer them away from bad choices – invaluable assistance. A friend is uniquely prepared for this given that most people share things with friends that they wouldn't with family, colleagues etc.

In terms of personal growth, friends can introduce us to new ideas, hobbies, and cultures. In getting to know a new friend, we often explore their interests and point of view, leading us to have a more comprehensive understanding of what we do and don't enjoy and believe in. As such, friendships can be the catalyst for broadening one's endeavors and mindset .

Finally, particularly in younger years, making and maintaining friendships can serve as a helpful model for future relationships. For example, a simple disagreement on the playground can be immensely beneficial for developing life-long social skills such as conflict resolution, theory of mind, and cooperation.

In conclusion, friends are indeed the family we choose and are key to our development and learning from youth right through to adulthood .

Word count - 339

119. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #33

One significantly overlooked environmental issue that concerns me is the problem of free-roaming, domesticated cats. Not only does letting pet cats outdoors heighten their risk of injury and premature mortality, but it also severely damages the environment in three ways.

Firstly , it's no secret that domesticated cats have a natural instinct to chase prey, but you might not know that in recent years this has led to a drastic reduction in local wildlife , including already endangered birds. Such predatory behaviors are unnecessary and threaten entire ecosystems -- a highly avoidable problem given that we can instead give our furry companions all they need at home with cat toys and food.

Allowing cats to roam free, without neutering them, has culminated in an   overpopulation of felines - a majority of which are homeless. Not neutering cats is highly unethical given that most shelters are already overrun with unclaimed pets and sometimes euthanize perfectly healthy animals to make space. In turn, heightened consumption of the resources needed to power busy shelters contributes to carbon emissions. Consider this a reminder to adopt your next fluffy compatriot from a shelter rather than breeders and to neuter your cats (however much they sulk afterwards)!

Finally, when cats are free-roaming, they defecate anywhere and everywhere. Improper disposal of pet waste has been shown to lead to water contamination issues, which can cause a plethora of diseases and even death for the humans and animals who consume and rely on it as a water source.

In conclusion, it's highly recommended to keep your beloved cats safely inside. Your cat, the environment, and the little bird your cat chitters at every morning at 5 a.m. will thank you.

Word count - 276

120. "Writing Sample" Cue Card #34

For this last answer, we're going to show you how entering your own responses into Arno can help you improve your Duolingo English Test scores.

First, you'll need to create a free account on duolingo.goarno.io . Following this, click the play button next to the question type you want to practice ("Writing Sample" in this case).

A question will appear like the one below and a timer. Write your response in the box until the timer runs out (or pause it if you don't want to time yourself just yet).

When you are finished, click submit and Arno will instantly score your answer for you and provide grammar and vocabulary feedback.

🤟Arno doesn't just correct your grammar and vocabulary but explains the reasoning behind the correction so you can learn from any mistakes you have made.

👉 Arno also provides a rewritten version of your response to demonstrate the feedback in action!

Being multilingual has become increasingly common in recent years due to globalization. There are numerous advantages to acquiring a second language, like gaining a competitive edge in the job market, enhancing travel experiences, and gaining a deeper understanding of both your native language and the culture associated with the language you are learning.

In the 21st century, employers prefer candidates with proficiency in a second language candidates who only speak their native language. This prediliction for bilingualism arises because immigration is more prevalent and companies frequently engage in international collaboratioons.  THus a multi-lingual employee is better equipped to provide for clients outside of the usual scope. In my own job search, I've found that some positions specifically require bilingual candidates and won't even consider individuals if they arent. There are also a plethora of careers out there specifically in this area such as medical translators, who relay messages back and forth between patients and there doctors.

Another compelling reason to attain a second language is that it enhances your travel experiences. Not only does it make navigating a new place easier by enabling you to read street signs, menus, and ask for assistance when needed but it can also make the experience more meaningful; knowing the local language allows you to engage you can interact with locals and get to know their culture more deeply.

Moreover through learning another language you can grasp a better understanding of your own language in contrast, bringing awareness to idiosyncrasies that previously escaped your notice.In the same vein, you will likely develop a rich insight into the culture underpinning e language you are trying to learn from linguistic nuances and expressions used.

In summary, learning a language has limitless benefits and opens the door for valuable opportunities. But learning a language has been shown to get harder the older you get, so be sure to start learning a second language as soon as you can.

If you made it this far, congratulations!!! Taking practice questions and reviewing model answers for the Duolingo English Test is one of the best ways to improve your score. If you completed all of these you deserve a snack, but before you head to the fridge remember, all of these example questions (and many more) can be found on Arno for free so click below to sign up today! You can also find an additional model answer for each question type on our blog.

Happy studying/snacking!

20 English Essay Topics/Questions | B2 First (FCE)

The language of an English essay should be formal . Also, make sure that you justify all your ideas and that you use appropriate connectors to link your sentences and paragraphs .

How to write B2 First (FCE) essay?

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B2 First (FCE) Essay: Example Topics / Questions

Below is a sample list of academic essay writing topics/tasks for B2-level (intermediate) students. You can use them to practice writing English essays or to prepare for the Cambridge B2 First (FCE) exam

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 1 | First (FCE)

You have watched a documentary about young children in poor areas who leave school to work. Your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

Write an essay using all the notes and give reasons for your point of view.

Teenagers are dropping out of school to find a job. How can we help them to continue their education?

Write about:

• family problems
• financial difficulties
• …………… (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 2 | First (FCE)

In your social studies course, you have watched a documentary on the potential effects of too much pollution on the air quality of city centres. Your professor has assigned you an essay to write.

Keeping the air quality in city centres at healthy levels for their residents is a concern for many places. How can we solve the problem of pollution in city centres?

• automobiles
• ………………  (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 3 | First (FCE)

In your education class, you have listened to a lecture on the importance of teaching foreign languages in school. Your teacher has asked you to write an essay.

Learning a foreign language helps students develop a set of important skills. Why should foreign languages be taught in schools?

• new cultures
•  employment
• …………. (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 4 | First (FCE)

You have listened to a radio programme about the problem of widespread starvation in many parts of Africa. Your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

In many parts of Africa, people are dying of starvation and lack of freshwater. Can these problems be solved?

• lack of organised farming
• …….. …….. (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 5 | First (FCE)

You have watched a video on a non-profit organisation working to stop the use of animals for testing medicines used by human beings. Now, your professor has asked you to write an essay.

Testing on animals is a standard in scientific research. What is the best way to deal with this problem?

• animals suffer
• outdated form of research
• …… ……..  (your own idea)

Get Your (FCE) Essay Checked!

B2 - essay topic / question 6 | first (fce).

You have listened to a radio programme about deforestation, the cutting down of trees in many wild areas around the world. Now, your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

Many forests around the world are being destroyed for agricultural, commercial, or housing use without allowing time for the forests to regenerate themselves. What can be done to improve the situation?

• what contributes to the greenhouse effect
• ………. (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 7 | First (FCE)

In your English class, you have been talking about endangered species, animals or plants that will likely become extinct. Your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

Around the world, many wildlife species are in danger of extinction. How can we protect endangered animals?

• hunting wild animals
• ………..  (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 8 | First (FCE)

You have watched a Youtube video about the problem of computer game addiction in children. Your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

More and more young people spend most of their time playing computer games. How can we help children to overcome this addiction?

• bad grades at school
• no social life
• ………… (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 9 | First (FCE)

You have listened to a radio programme about the impact of smoking on people’s health. Now, your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

Smoking is responsible for many health problems throughout the world. Do you think it should be made illegal?

• lung cancer
•  passive smoking
• ……………… (your own idea)

FCE, CAE, CPE

More than practice tests, b2 - essay topic / question 10 | first (fce).

In your English class, you have been talking about the problem of obesity in young people. Now your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

In Europe and the USA a lot of young people have an obesity problem. What can be done to solve this problem?

• (your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 11 | First (FCE)

Has technology made a positive contribution to sport today?

• The use of technology to improve performance
• The use of technology in refereeing decisions

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 12 | First (FCE)

It is better to work at home than in an office. Do you agree?

• Contact with people
• Working hours

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 13 | First (FCE)

Life is harder for young people now than in the past. Do you agree?

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 14 | First (FCE)

Is it better to go shopping in small local businesses or large out-of-town shopping centres?

• Where things are cheaper
• Where service is better

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 15 | First (FCE)

Is it better to spend a summer holiday in the countryside or on the coast?

• Leisure options

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 16 | First (FCE)

Your teacher has asked you to write your response to the following statement taken from a recent newspaper article:

Do you agree that community service works better than fines?

• effort and time
• lesson learned
• ………………(your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 17 | First (FCE)

Is it true that we help the environment when we plant a tree?

• clear the air
•  ………….( your own idea)

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 18 | First (FCE)

Nowadays children are suffering from obesity, that was once considered to be meant for adults only. What are its causes and what solutions can be offered?

• busy lifestyle

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 19 | First (FCE)

Is it better to be the oldest or the youngest in a family?

• role of older sibling

B2 - Essay Topic / Question 20 | First (FCE)

Modern lifestyles can seriously endanger our health.

Do you agree?

• physical activity
• …….. (your own choice)

B2 First (FCE) Essay: Download (PDF)

Download B2 First (FCE) Essay: Topics (PDF)

Practice Tests Online

B2 first (fce) essay: assessement criteria.

Your essay will be assessed according to these four criteria:

Would you pass B2 First (FCE)?

TSI Essay Practice Test

Take a TSI essay practice test to help you prepare for the essay portion of your TSIA2 exam.

You will find 4 different TSI writing prompts below. Each prompt follows the style you will see on the actual exam. Start preparing for your TSI essay below!

• TSI Essay Test 1
• TSI Essay Test 2
• TSI Essay Test 3
• TSI Essay Test 4

You can prepare for other sections of the exam by visiting our TSI practice home.

TSI Essay Overview

The TSI essay is designed to test your ability to write and communicate your thoughts. You will find the essay on the ELAR portion of the TSIA2 exam.

You can expect the following:

• 300-600 Word Essay Style Response

Your essay will be graded on the following 6 characteristics:

• Purpose and Focus: Ability to present information in a clear and unified way.
• Organization and Structure: Ability to order your essay and connect thoughts.
• Development and Support: Ability to develop ideas and support them.
• Sentence Variety and Style: Ability to create sentences and paragraphs with a control over vocab, structure, and voice.
• Mechanical Conventions: Ability to express ideas with proper English and grammar.
• Critical Thinking: Ability to communicate and think in a critical manner.

You will need to score 5+ on the essay portion of the TSIA2. Remember, the essay is given along with the ELAR section.

TSI Essay FAQs

Is the tsi essay timed.

The TSI essay is not timed. You can complete it on your own time. However, it must be completed in one session (no breaks).

How long should my TSI essay be?

Your TSI essay should be between 300 and 600 words. This is also stated in the directions given to you before you start.

How is the TSI essay graded?

• Purpose and Focus
• Organization and Structure
• Development and Support
• Sentence Variety and Style
• Mechanical Conventions
• Critical Thinking

• Authored By: Dave Evangelisti
• Last Updated August 2, 2023