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Having Children at a Later Age

In many countries, people decide to have children at a later age than in the past.

Why? Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?

2 sample answers, estimated Band 7.0–7.5. Your turn?

Write it first, then read the sample answers and reviews below. You'll see the gap at once.

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Essay ideas: Having Children at a Later Age

WhyThis is aTwo-part question — it asks two separate questions in one prompt.

SoWe split the ideas intoQuestion 1(answers the first question)andQuestion 2(answers the second question).

Question 1

2 ideas

Question 2

4 ideas

Same question · Different responses

Sample responses and feedback

Response 01

Must fixSuggested

Essay · 295 words · 5 paragraphs · 11 comments

Score details

Response 01
Estimated band7.0/ 9

Overall assessment

The response directly answers both parts of the question, giving plausible causes and a clearly argued position with relevant examples. The main limitation is that the reasons for delayed parenthood receive less development than the advantages, and some supporting points are somewhat generalized rather than fully elaborated.

TR

Task Response

The response addresses both the causes and the weight-of-advantages question with a clear position and relevant supporting examples, though the causes are developed more briefly than the advantages.

7.0
CC

Coherence and Cohesion

Ideas progress logically across well-sequenced paragraphs with appropriate cohesive devices, with only occasional slightly mechanical linking such as formulaic opposition and conclusion frames.

7.0
LR

Lexical Resource

Vocabulary is flexible and precise, with natural collocations such as 'financial stability', 'advanced maternal age', and 'emotionally mature parenting', and only minor imprecision.

7.0
GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

A wide range of sentence structures is used with generally good control, including relative clauses, participial phrases and a concessive clause. Repeated spaces before full stops are minor punctuation-formatting errors.

7.0

What to work on next

Develop the explanations of why people delay parenthood in more depth, adding a second cause or more detailed support to match the fuller treatment of the advantages.

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Useful vocabulary: Having Children at a Later Age

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Sentence patterns: Having Children at a Later Age

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Task 2 question loaded.
Part 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write at least 250 words.

Words: 040:00 starts on first word