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Task 2 · Advantages and disadvantages · Family

Starting a family later

A both-sides question on delayed parenthood, where the band 9 answer notices that the benefits arrive immediately and the costs arrive a generation late.

The question

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

In many countries people are having their first child at a much later age than previous generations did. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this development.

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

What separates the three answers

The 6.5 says older parents are more stable and more tired; the 7.5 adds the medical and demographic dimensions; the 9 explains why an advantage felt now and a cost felt in thirty years cannot simply be set against each other.

The three answers

Band 6.5

273 words (the task asks for at least 250)

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

The answer

In many countries of the world, the people are becoming parents much later than before. In the past, the women had their first baby when they were around twenty years old, but nowadays it is common to wait until thirty or more. This development has both the advantages and the disadvantages.

There are several advantages of having the children later.3 Firstly, the parents are more mature and they have more experience of the life, so they can take better decisions for their child. Secondly, they are usually more stable in the financial way4. They have finished their education and they have a good job, so they can provide everything what the child needs5, for example the good school and the nice house. Moreover, the women can build their career first, and after that they can come back to the work without losing their position.

However, this development also has the disadvantages. The first disadvantage is the medical one, because it is more difficult for the older women to become pregnant and there are more risks for the mother and the baby. Secondly, the older parents have less energy for playing with the small children, and they will be quite old when their child is a teenager. In addition, if everybody has the children later, the population of the country will decrease, and this is a problem for the economy in the future1.

In conclusion, having the children at a later age has the advantages like the money and the maturity, but also the disadvantages like the health risks and the energy. Every family should decide by themselves what is the best for them.2

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Task response

    “if everybody has the children later, the population of the country will decrease, and this is a problem for the economy in the future”

    Much the largest idea in the essay, introduced with 'In addition' at the end of a paragraph and explained no further. A problem for the economy how?

  2. 2. Task response

    “Every family should decide by themselves what is the best for them.”

    A recommendation stands in for a conclusion. The discussion ends without either side having been examined against the other.

  3. 3. Coherence and cohesion

    “There are several advantages of having the children later.”

    The paragraph names its contents before delivering them, and the ordering that follows is supplied by 'Firstly', 'Secondly' and 'Moreover' rather than by any relationship between the ideas.

  4. 4. Lexical resource

    “they are usually more stable in the financial way”

    'Financially' exists and is what is meant. The same pattern produces 'take better decisions' and 'come back to the work' — words that are individually right and jointly wrong.

  5. 5. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “so they can provide everything what the child needs”

    A relative pronoun error, alongside consistent definite articles before generic plurals such as 'the women' and 'the small children'. Meaning is never at risk.

One honest caveat

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

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