Reading the prompt: four shapes, and why it matters
Almost every Task 2 question is one of four shapes, and identifying which one you are looking at is most of Task Response. A perfectly written essay that answers the wrong shape of question is heavily penalised — and the commonest version of that failure is answering only half of a two-part prompt.
Opinion — “To what extent do you agree or disagree?”
One position, held throughout. A balanced essay that never commits has not answered the question, because the question asked for a view.
A qualified position is fine. An absent one is not.
Discussion — “Discuss both views and give your own opinion.”
Two compulsory parts. Give each view real space, then state your own. An essay that discusses both views and forgets the opinion has answered two-thirds of the prompt.
The commonest half-answered prompt on the paper.
Problem and solution — “What are the causes, and what could be done?”
Again two parts. Vague solutions are the weak point: name the action, and say who takes it.
Two developed solutions beat five listed ones.
Advantages and disadvantages — “Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?”
Read the second half. Many versions of this shape demand a judgement, not a list of both sides — and a list is what most candidates deliver.
If it asks you to weigh them, weigh them explicitly.
Before writing anything, underline the two instructions in the prompt. There are almost always two, and the second one is the one that gets forgotten under time pressure.
Forty Task 2 questions, by prompt shape
Sorted by shape rather than by subject on purpose: what you need to practise is recognising what a question is asking you to do, and a bank sorted by topic hides that. The subjects themselves recycle a small set — education, environment, technology, health, work, crime, media, government — which is why the topic vocabulary page is the more useful preparation.
Opinion — take a position and hold it
Ten questions. Decide your position before you start writing, and make the introduction say it.
- 1Some people believe that university education should be free for everyone. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
- 2Working from home is better for employees than working in an office. To what extent do you agree?
- 3Governments should spend money on public transport rather than on new roads. Do you agree or disagree?
- 4Children under twelve should not be allowed to own a smartphone. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
- 5It is the responsibility of individuals, not governments, to reduce household waste. How far do you agree?
- 6Museums and art galleries should be free to enter. To what extent do you agree?
- 7A country’s history should be a compulsory subject at school until the age of eighteen. Do you agree?
- 8Companies should be legally required to publish what they pay their staff. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
- 9Sport should be treated as seriously as academic subjects in schools. How far do you agree?
- 10The best way to reduce crime is to give young people better opportunities. To what extent do you agree?
Discussion — both views, then yours
Ten questions. Three parts to cover, and the third is the one candidates drop.
- 11Some people think that news should be free to everyone; others believe that good journalism has to be paid for. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
- 12Some argue that cities should ban private cars from their centres, while others say this harms local businesses. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
- 13Some people believe children learn best through play; others think structured teaching is more effective. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
- 14Some think that international tourism benefits a country; others believe the costs outweigh the gains. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
- 15Some people think retirement should be compulsory at a fixed age; others believe people should work as long as they wish. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
- 16Some believe that art should be publicly funded; others say it should survive on its own. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
- 17Some argue that social media companies should moderate what is posted; others say this amounts to censorship. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
- 18Some people think it is better to live in a large city; others prefer a small town. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
- 19Some believe schools should teach practical life skills; others think academic subjects matter more. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
- 20Some argue that zoos are important for conservation; others believe wild animals should never be kept in captivity. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Problem and solution — causes, then actions
Ten questions. Name the actor for every solution you propose.
- 21Fewer young people are reading for pleasure. What are the causes, and what could be done about it?
- 22Many cities suffer from serious traffic congestion. What are the main causes, and what measures could reduce it?
- 23The number of people living alone is increasing in many countries. What problems does this create, and how could they be addressed?
- 24A great deal of food is thrown away in wealthy countries. Why does this happen, and what can be done?
- 25Many people find it difficult to save money. What are the reasons, and what could help?
- 26Rural areas in many countries are losing their young population. Why is this happening, and what could be done to reverse it?
- 27Levels of physical activity have fallen sharply among children. What are the causes, and what solutions would you suggest?
- 28Many workers report feeling stressed. What are the main reasons, and how could employers respond?
- 29Some languages are disappearing. Why is this happening, and does it matter?
- 30Air quality in many large cities remains poor despite decades of regulation. Why, and what more could be done?
Advantages and disadvantages — and the weighing
Ten questions. Check whether the prompt wants a list or a judgement.
- 31More people are choosing to study online rather than attend a campus. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
- 32Many companies now use automated systems to select job applicants. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
- 33Some countries encourage tourism as a major industry. Do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks?
- 34English is increasingly used as the language of international business. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
- 35A growing number of people buy almost everything online. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development?
- 36Some employers allow staff to choose their own working hours. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
- 37Governments in some countries fund large sporting events. Do the benefits justify the cost?
- 38Many families now have both parents in full-time work. What are the advantages and disadvantages for children?
- 39Cashless payment is replacing physical money in many countries. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
- 40Some universities admit students on the basis of interviews as well as examinations. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
One essay, worked through
The essay below answers the first discussion question in the bank above, at roughly the length forty minutes allows. Read it once straight through, then take the commentary paragraph by paragraph.
Some people think that news should be free to everyone; others believe that good journalism has to be paid for. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
The essay — 281 words
Whether access to news should be universal or contingent on payment has become a sharper question as more publications have moved behind subscription walls. Both positions have real force, though I believe the argument for paid journalism is ultimately the stronger one.
The case for free access rests on the nature of the thing being sold. Reliable information about public affairs is not an ordinary consumer product; a citizen who cannot afford it is less able to vote, to hold institutions to account or to make decisions about their own life. Where paywalls become widespread, the practical consequence is that accurate reporting is restricted to those who can pay for it, while free misinformation remains available to everyone. That is a genuinely troubling outcome, and it is not answered by pointing out that news has usually cost money.
The opposing view begins from the cost of production. Serious reporting — a correspondent kept in a difficult country for a year, a legal team, an investigation that may yield nothing — is expensive, slow and impossible to fund from advertising alone, particularly since advertising revenue now flows overwhelmingly to platforms that produce no journalism at all. If nobody pays, what survives is not free quality journalism but cheap material designed to attract clicks, which serves the public considerably worse than a paywall does.
My own view is that the second argument is decisive, but that it obliges those who accept it to solve the access problem rather than ignore it. Public funding for a limited number of independent outlets, free institutional access through libraries and schools, and lower rates for younger readers would all preserve the revenue that reporting requires without making informed citizenship a function of income.
What this answer does
- The introduction paraphrases and commits, in two sentencesNo background, no rhetorical question, no invented statistic. The topic is restated in different words and the position is stated. A candidate who cannot decide a position in the introduction will usually not have one by the conclusion either.
- Each body paragraph has one idea, named in its first sentenceThe case for free access rests on the nature of the thing being sold. The opposing view begins from the cost of production. An examiner should be able to read only the first sentence of each paragraph and know the structure of the argument. That is what Coherence and Cohesion measures.
- Both views get genuine spaceRoughly eighty words each, and — importantly — the view the writer disagrees with is put at its strongest rather than as a straw man. Discussion prompts reward this, and the essays that lose marks here are the ones that give the losing side three dismissive lines.
- The opinion paragraph does something, rather than restatingIt picks a side and then answers the objection raised by the side it rejected. That is the move that turns a competent discussion essay into a good one, and it takes about thirty words.
- The support is specificA correspondent kept in a difficult country for a year, lower rates for younger readers. Concrete examples, none of which require a statistic or a source. Invented figures are a real risk in Task 2 and they are never necessary — a plausible instance does the same work without the exposure.
- There is no conclusion paragraph, and that is deliberate hereThe final paragraph is the opinion, and it closes the argument. A separate two-line conclusion repeating it would add nothing. Where a prompt does call for a summing-up, keep it to two sentences and introduce no new material.
Against the four criteria
- Task ResponseAll three parts of a discussion prompt are present: the first view, the second view, and a clearly stated opinion that is developed rather than announced. The position is consistent from the introduction onwards.
- Coherence and CohesionFour paragraphs, one idea each, with the connections carried by the argument itself. The linking devices are though, where, particularly since, but that — no firstly, no moreover, no last but not least.
- Lexical ResourceContingent on, hold institutions to account, obliges, a function of income. Precise and topic-appropriate, and no phrase in it looks memorised.
- Grammatical Range and AccuracyA nominalised subject clause opening the essay, two conditionals, a fronted concessive, a non-defining relative, and a three-item parallel list in the final sentence. Complex throughout and accurate throughout — which is the pairing the criterion names.
An essay of this quality, produced in forty minutes under exam conditions, describes the behaviour typically assessed around band 8. The word that matters in that sentence is produced: the same essay written slowly, with a dictionary, tells you nothing about what you would score.
What would raise it: The honest weakness is the third paragraph, which is slightly the weaker of the two views and gets one fewer supporting instance. Under Task Response, a discussion essay that treats its two views unequally is doing exactly what the prompt asked it not to — and it is the easiest thing in the world to do accidentally when you already know which side you are on.
What forty minutes actually looks like
The plan below is not a suggestion about how to spend the time; it is a description of what the strongest candidates are observed to do. The unfamiliar part is how much of it is not writing.
| Minutes | What you are doing | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 0–2 | Read the prompt twice. Underline both instructions. Decide your position. | Half-answered prompts are the most expensive error on the paper and they are all committed in this window. |
| 2–5 | Plan: one line per paragraph, and the specific example that will support each. | Deciding your examples while writing is what produces the paragraph that starts strongly and trails off. |
| 5–33 | Write, without stopping to edit. | Roughly ten words a minute is a comfortable 280. Stopping to reword mid-sentence costs more time than the rewording saves. |
| 33–38 | Read it back once for articles, prepositions, agreement and tense. | These four account for most residual errors at B2–C1, and they are the ones you can actually find in five minutes. |
| 38–40 | Check you answered both instructions. Check the length. | A final check against the prompt, not against your essay. |
Forty minutes for Task 2. The first five minutes are the ones people skip and the ones that decide the band.
What quietly caps a Task 2 essay
- Answering one of two instructions. Discussion prompts have three parts and problem-solution prompts have two. Read the second half of the prompt again after you finish planning.
- The memorised opening. In today’s modern world, it is a controversial issue that… is recognised instantly, contributes nothing, and signals that what follows may also be pre-learnt. Start with the topic.
- Invented statistics. According to a recent study, 78% of… Examiners are not fact-checking, but an unsupportable figure adds nothing that a plausible example would not, and it reads as filler.
- Undeveloped ideas. Four ideas each given two sentences score below two ideas each given six. Development — explain, then illustrate — is where Task Response is actually won.
- Connective scaffolding. Firstly, Secondly, Moreover, In conclusion stapled onto paragraphs that do not follow from each other reads worse than no connectives at all. Cohesion comes from the ideas being in the right order.
- Under length. Below 250 words is penalised. Aim for about 280 so you never have to count.