Sample response & feedback

Raising the Minimum Legal Driving Age for Road Safety

Question

Some people think that the best way to increase road safety is to increase the minimum legal age for driving cars and riding motorbikes. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Annotated response

13 correction notes

Showing 13 correction notes.

Some opine that increasing drivers’ and motorcyclists’ minimum legal age should be regarded as the best approach to improve road safety. Personally, I totally disagree with this statement because neither can the policy help people understand the significance of safe driving nor enable them to realise how seriously accidents may impact victims and themselves.

The major reason why I am strongly against increasing the minimum legal age for driving vehicles being decisive to road safety is that drivers’ safety awareness will not be altered. Although it seems people will naturally know how to drive safely with age, . , for instance, to , regardless of their age. Therefore, even if there was a rise in the minimum driving age, they would do the same; in other words, numerous car accidents would still happen.

Another point supporting my stance is that simply adopting measures regarding driving age is not enough to encourage reckless drivers to know the adverse consequences their actions may entail owing to a dearth of sanctions imposed on them. If drivers perceive that they will not be punished, it is highly likely that they will keep involving themselves in dangerous behaviours, such as . In contrast, prioritising punishment can be more effective.

In conclusion, I completely approve of the viewpoint that for driving cars and motorbikes is by no means the best way to reduce the increasing number of road accidents. drivers’ awareness of safe driving; meanwhile, it cannot make them consider the severe results of their negligence. Obviously, there is more to improving road safety than increasing the minimum legal age, such as organising programmes that can promote people’s consciousness of safe driving and implementing punitive strategies.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response presents a clear, consistent disagreement with the proposal and develops two relevant supporting arguments across well-organised paragraphs. Its strongest aspect is the sustained logical structure and ambitious vocabulary, while the main limitation is occasional grammatical awkwardness and slightly underdeveloped argumentation in places.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

TR Task Response

7.0

The position of total disagreement is clearly stated, consistently maintained, and supported with relevant ideas, though some arguments remain somewhat generally developed rather than fully extended.

CC Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas progress logically across clear paragraphs with effective use of cohesive devices such as 'for instance', 'therefore', and 'in contrast', though some linking is occasionally mechanical or slightly forced.

LR Lexical Resource

7.5

The response demonstrates a good range of vocabulary, including items like 'safety awareness', 'a dearth of sanctions', and 'punitive strategies', used with generally strong control and only minor imprecision.

GRA Grammatical Range and Accuracy

6.5

There is a mix of simple and complex structures, but some constructions are awkward or ungrammatical, such as 'the major reason ... being decisive' and 'is impossible to boost', which slightly reduce overall accuracy.