IELTS Writing Task 2: children's upbringing

Children who are brought up in families that do not have large amounts of money are better prepared to deal with the problems of adult life than children brought up by wealthy parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Here are two quick tasks related to the question above.

1) Vocabulary: fill the gaps in the following paragraph:

On the one hand, I agree that some children from less wealthy _____ might be in a better position to _____ adult life. Children whose parents have less money learn to fight, struggle and solve problems on a daily _____. They are forced to rely on _____ because they have less financial help from parents and cannot get what they want as soon as they want it. For example, poorer children may have to wait until a birthday to receive a toy or game that they have asked for, and this encourages them to learn patience. These children will also learn the importance of managing money and the value of hard _____, which will be vital _____ in later life.

2) Opinions: think of some ideas to support the opposite point of view.

Comments

[Sara]

Dear Simon
I did my ielts general test on 7th Sep and I got 7
listening=7
reading=8
Writing=5.5
speaking=6.5
First of all, I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to you for your invaluable help by letting us to study for IELTS via your website. I studied for the test by following your website and thanks to you that my skills improved a lot. My writing is not that bad, last time I got 6.5 in writing and I am a PhD student and dealing with many writing tasks during my studies. Also, I have published several papers in international journals and during the exam I felt that I wrote well, but I don't know what happened that I ended up like this.
I am not sure I am eligible to apply for FSW of Canada or not. Some people say since my writing is 5.5 it is not possible to apply for FSW. I searched on the web also but I couldn’t find a solid explanation for the way that they calculate the English Scores for FSW. I would appreciate if you kindly help me. I am so stressful. Honestly, I don't know whether I have to sit for another exam or not?
Dear Simon, I understand that this is not your responsibility to reply to me and you are not a consultant. I wrote to you just because I don’t have anyone else to ask
So sorry for the inconvenience caused
Thank you in advance
Sara

[Naresh]

HI SIMON,

In Speaking test, if a topic is related to an animal or plant,
1)Can we address them as "It"?
[OR]
2)Animal should be addressed as "He/She" and plant as "It"?

Thanks,
Naresh

[Srini]

HI ,
Below are the answers
1) family
2) deal
3) basis
4) problems
5) work
6) lesson

[bsmr]

1)family
2)deal
3)basis
4)money
5)hardwork
6)role

[suo]

family
have
basis
themselves
effort
element

[Allen]

my answer:
families,
succeed in,
basis,
themselves,
work,
personality

[Allen]

personality-->skill

[azam-Iran]

1. family
2. deal with
3. basis
4. their own
5. work
5. role

[linkzhou]

families
adapt
basis
themselves
work
treasure

[Jacob]

1)
families
face
basis
themselves
work
knowledge

2) not so good ideas actually, I'm not coming from a wealthy family ;)
- Children raised in wealthy families have access to the best available education which give them access to better jobs in the future.
- Their families have many social connections at hand's reach which can be useful in certain circumstances (overcome legal or health issues).
- They learn how to administer large companies and businesses giving them more chance to cope with financial problems in adult life.

[zatcsc]

1. family
2. deal with
3. basis
4. themselves
5. work
6. vital importance

[Aleksandra Bucholc]

...some children from less wealthy (1)- households( families,societies) might be in a better position to( 2)-enter(begin) adult life.

Children whose have less money learn to fight........ on a daily basis(3)

They are forced to rely on themselves(4).......

These children will also learn the importance of managing money and the value of hard work(5) which will be vital skill(6) in later life)



On the other hand, it seems to me that living in a poorer family may have some serious consequences rather limiting their future perspectives. Simply, the lack of money in a menage means that mainly only basic needs are provided,and there are no extra means for more sophisticated educational tools, after-school activities like foreign language courses, tutoring or other extra-curriculum classes developing children's particular talents and knowledge or building up new skills according to their inner predispositions or interests. The same is with some hobbies ,though very valuable regarding the learning of new things, but which are so expensive that only richer children can afford it. Consequently, those more privileged may develop better and then be considered as more valuable candidates for a degree course or when competing on a job market. Another point is that poorer children cannot for example go for a holiday spent abroad to broaden their horizons or also at school to enroll into some optional trips like skiing abroad or foreign language school exchange. Instead, they may be even pushed to work part time to help with living costs or just to buy something what others may have for granted without any effort. By doing this they may deprived themselves from the time that could be better spent on studying, personal development or just socialising with others. Lastly, in some poorer societies a vicious circle of permanent unemployment, poverty, addictions and even crime is prevalent. There are no good examples here, no role models to motivate children, who in such conditions cannot see real perspectives for themselves and are not able to cross these limits to go higher in their chosen career paths. In contrast, they may copy these bad patterns observed. Of course, some of them can raise above the situation but it is never easy, and requires a lot of determination plus a bit of luck.

[roro]

Parents
Handle with
Days
Themselves
work
___

[uon]

families
their
life
themselves
work
skills

[Ko Sa Ri]

families
deal with
basis
themselves
working
lessson

[eleanor diones]

Children who are brought up in families that do not have large amounts of money are better prepared to deal with the problems of adult life than children brought up by wealthy parents. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Children raised in different ways, yet this is essential on there upbringing to their life. Those who are raised from less amount of money are sometimes confident to deal with their circumstances rather than those who are raised from rich parents. This will be elaborated in this essay.

Firstly, they have a lot of experience, children who are brought up in poor families are the one who has a lot of experienced in terms of being independent and not relying on there parents, because they know that even their parents do not have anything that they can give. For example in terms of asking for their daily allowance, they just decided to use in a minimal cause to the extent that they will use their extra for tomorrows expense.

Secondly, they have a lot of patience in a way that they need to wait for the right time when there is enough for their family, because they know that there is something more important rather than to accommodate first the things that they want. In particularly, when there is an important books to buy for their schooling they instead borrow some books to the library or their friends, sometimes need to photocopy it so they have something that they could read at home.

Thirdly, they are more eager to strives, because they know that they do not have enough and knowing that they need to help their family to enhance their resources. In order to do this, they study hard so they can graduate as soon as possible and to have their own job to sustain the needs of their family.

In my conclusion, based on my example, it is well explained that sometimes those who are raised from poor families are more confident to live on their own and to face the difficult circumstances.

[Raveen]

Hi,

Here is my answer.

On the one hand, I agree that some children from less wealthy families might be in the better position to deal with adult life. Children whose parents have less money learn to fight, struggle and solve problems on a daily life/basis. They are forced to rely on themselves because they have less financial help from parents and cannot get what they want as soon as they want it. For example, poorer children may have to wait until birthday to receive a toy or game that they asked for, and this encourages them to learn patience. These children will also learn the importance of managing money and they value of hard-working, which will be vital role in the later life.

Thanks

[Naresh]

Hi SIMON,

In Listening test, if the answer should be not more than three words/number,
For question: Ages of children who visit regularly,
can we give answer as 1st or 2nd or both from below?
1) 3 years, 6 years
2) 3 and 6

Thanks,
Naresh

[Roqi]

Hi all,
my answer;
1) Vocabulary: fill the gaps in the following paragraph:

families
deal with
themselves
hard-working
effective role

2) Opinions: think of some ideas to support the opposite point of view.

On other hand, children brought up by wealthy parents usually go to the best schools and receive a higher education there, which prepares them better for solving problems in their life. Also, wealthy children can exciting experience and learn new things while unfortunate children can not do it. In addition, children of rich families can children of rich families, afford to purchase important books and not available in local libraries, as they can learn through Internet "Distance Learning".

Thank you.

[Allen]

families
adapt
basis
themselves
work
character

[Simon]

CORRECT ANSWERS FROM SIMON:

These are the words I originally used in the paragraph (other words might also be possible):

1. backgrounds
2. face
3. basis
4. themselves
5. work
6. skills

...

Hi Sara,

I don't know much about Canadian immigration, but the website below seems to show that you need a minimum of 6 in each part of the test:

http://www.newroots.ca/new_independent.htm

...

Hi Naresh,

I'd use "it".
Just write "3 and 6".

[Naresh]

Thanks alot Simon.

[susan]

households
cope with/address/combat/confront
basis
themselves
conceptions/lessons/characters

[asan]

HI MR.SIMON
I WANT TO ANSWER SARA FOR FSW TO CANADA
THE MINIMUM LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT IS 6 IN EVERY SKILL. SHE SHOULD FOLLOW THIS INFORMATION ON WWW.cic.gc.ca

[Ankita Srivastav]

Hi,
Answers are as follows-
Family
Lead
Basis
Salary
Time
Lesson

Regards,
Ankita Srivastav

[Sara]

Dear Simon
Hi,
Thank you so much for your prompt reply and help.
Kind regards
Sara

[Trung]

Hi Simon,
My answer:
On the one hand, I agree that some children from less wealthy _family_ might be in a better position to _deal with_ adult life. Children whose parents have less money learn to fight, struggle and solve problems on a daily _basis_. They are forced to rely on _themselves_ because they have less financial help from parents and cannot get what they want as soon as they want it. For example, poorer children may have to wait until a birthday to receive a toy or game that they have asked for, and this encourages them to learn patience. These children will also learn the importance of managing money and the value of hard _work_, which will be vital _lesson_ in later life.
Thank you!

[Hanna]

On the one hand, I agree that some children from less wealthy _families____ might be in a better position to __handle___ adult life. Children whose parents have less money learn to fight, struggle and solve problems on a daily _basis____. They are forced to rely on _themselves____ because they have less financial help from parents and cannot get what they want as soon as they want it. For example, poorer children may have to wait until a birthday to receive a toy or game that they have asked for, and this encourages them to learn patience. These children will also learn the importance of managing money and the value of hard ___working__, which will be vital _skills___ in later life.

[Shoaib Siddik]

Hi, my answer-

Families
deal with
basis
themselves
hard working
role

[Bella Tran]

Hi, my answer is :

families
develop
life
themselves
working
role

[Radwan]

Hi Simon
My answer is
1-societies.
2- start.
3-life .
4-themselves .
5- living .
6-ingredient .

with regards

[Sea Bird]

1. Fill the gaps:
- families
- deal with
- routines
- themselves
- working
- necessary

2. Opposite view:
- Children who live in wealthy families can study how to earn and manage money from their parents
- They can find out the variety between the rich and the poor
- They have a good education

[Kyle]

Dear Simon,

I have bought your ebook recently, I would like to ask about something on advertising topic which confused me. Should we write "We were persuaded to follow the latest trends." and "We were encouraged to...." as we are using passive voice in both sentence. Or it is because we are telling the truth, so we should use present tense "We are persuaded to follow...". I am not sure which one is right, please help!

Thank you very much and I found your ebook contains a lot of great materials.

Regards,
Kyle

[Sathi]

Obviously to some extent children from relatively poorer families might be well prepared for the battle of future life than the richer children. Personally I agree with the above view but I also believe that any educated, hard-working, enthusiastic individual would be able to solve the problems in life despite of the family background. On the one hand, some children from less wealthy families might be in a better position to face with adult life. Children whose parents have less money learn to fight ,struggle and solve problem on a daily basis. They are forced to rely on themselves because they have less financial support from parents and can not get what they want as soon as they want it. For example, poorer children may have to wait until a birthday to receive a toy or game that they have asked for, and this encourages them to learn patience. These children also learn the importance of managing money and the value of hard- work,which will be vital skills for later life. On the other hand, there are some people from relatively wealthy background able to handle difficult situations spontaneously because they have stong personality. In the UK, for example , many rich businessman are running their family businesses successfully and developing even better than their ancestors. This indicates that success in adult life depends on individual's merit, hard-work and sincerity rather than family condition. Moreover, many wealthy parents educate their children properly and teach them how to tackle problems in life. They do not let their children to be spoilt because of their large money. Children from this type of cultured rich families are also able to learn to solve their own problems independently like the poorer children. To sum up, my opinion is that we should brought up our children with good education and make them strong enough to bear their own burdens properly in future.

[Simon]

Hi Kyle,

The 'present simple passive' is good for both of those sentences. Don't put it into the past simple passive with "were".

PRESENT ACTIVE: Advertisers persuade us to follow...
PRESENT PASSIVE: We are persuaded (by advertisers) to follow...

[melisa]

HI SIMON,

trust you are well.
Please kindly look at my essay. really grateful that i found your website in a week time before my IELTS test on 12Oct13.
all the comments and reply will be much appreciated.

thank you :)

On the other hand, the parents who has enough money, they will ensure that their children will receive the best education and learning system. Since in early age, normally the parents start to introduce the children to some of extent skills such as foreign language, music, sports, art and so forth. They believe this is the most effective and efficient time as the children will absorb the knowledge quicker in their young age. This has resulted in the children are well equipped and being engaged to some skills that could be useful for their future. Moreover, growing up in the wealthy family also will give the children more opportunity to expand their capability in term of their future career. For instance, the children can get a good position in a company by their parents authorisation or the parents has a reference to their colleagues if the children wish to have a career in different fields. However, it comes down to how the children respond to their parents actions and as they are growing up as a young adult they have right to make a decision for their life.

In summarise, i somewhat agree that the children who comes from less wealthy background will be more confident in order to face their own circumstances in the future life.
In my opinion, it does not matter what your background was, as long as a parents or family doing their roles to direct and educate the children in right way, therefore the children will be able to deal with the obstacles in adult life.

[melisa]

SOMEONE PLEASE KINDLY COMMENT MY POST

THANK YOU XX

[tayo]

Hi simon. Please kindly tell me the minimum English Language requirement for immigration to UK.

[Rachel]

Dear SIMON,
The purpose of my IELTS test is 6.5.And very abnormal with other students in China,my speaking and writing are highly than listening and reading.Now the important problem for me is the number of the word.I always have to recite many words but don't know how to use.For example,i can write a better part and have a good opinion but i cannot find out or use a good word with 6or 7.So how can i do for my word problem and how to increase my grade for listening and reading.
So sorry for the inconvenience caused
Thank you
Rachel

[louise]

Dear Simon,
This is my answer to your question 1.
On the one hand, I agree that some children from less wealthy families might be in a better position to adapt adult life. Children whose parents have less money learn to fight, struggle and solve problems on a daily basis. They are forced to rely on themselves because they have less financial help from parents and cannot get what they want as soon as they want. For example, poorer children may have to wait until a birthday to receive a toy or game that they have asked for, and this encourages them to learn patience. These children will also learn the importance of managing money and the value of hard working, which will be vital factor to success in later life.

[ziaul huda]

The opposite point of view.
On the other hand, the children from wealthy families have an added advantage of buying text books and the study materials. This helps them to get the grades what they want. The richer parents usually admit their children into play and learning cente in order to learn new skills, games and communication. It is believed by wealthy people that children's brain in the early years of childhood is optimised to learn the new skils extremely quickly. Growing in a rich family also affects the children's career plan. For example, if any student gives the reference of his or her father's position for the compony he or she works is a plus point for the student's career

[hadi]

here are my own ideas:
family
deal
life
themselves
working
key

BR

***
Dear Simon i would like to give a suggestion that maybe it makes comment section more helpful for readers to find your own comments faster,in fact you can change color or font of them to be recognizable from others.
thank you

[hadi]

dear Simon,
there are some ideas for second part of question:

-Wealthy parents are not teach moral fibre or ethical basis evermore to someone they custody upbringing
-Some famous personage’s biography indicate they bringing up in some touch and poor situation, the lack of good parents is not main cause for being guilty
-It maybe cause children lost their mental independence which is root of many unsuccessful action in the future.
-The condition for getting Custody of these kinds of children is simple and easy so maybe happen mistakes at this process.

BR
Hadi

[LAURA]

1-families
2-deal (with)
3-life
4-themselves
5-work
6-factors/charaters/personalities/features

[Tezcan]

Hi Simon,

I wrote an essay according to topic and your paragraph. I know you don't correct the essay but I just wonder my structure and vocabulary. Could you give me feedback about structure and approximate band score of this essay?

Thanks,
Tezcan

Families have different financial levels and some people think that this variety of the family budgets have an impact on children skills. I believe that amount of money in family budget does not affect children’s preparation to deal with some problems in their future.

On the one hand, I agree that some children from less wealthy backgrounds might be in a better position to deal with adult life. Children whose parents have less money learn to fight, struggle and solve problems on a daily life. They are forced to rely on themselves because they have less financial help from parents and can not get what they want as soon as they want it. For example, poorer children may have to wait until a birthday to receive a toy or game that they have asked for, and this encourages them to learn patience. These children will also learn the importance of managing money and the values of hard work which will be vital skill in later life.

On the other hand, children who are brought up in wealthy families have chance to improve themselves with good education circumstances and large networks thanks to their families. Firstly, they usually go to private school and they have lots of opportunities at school such as well-equipped laboratories, uncrowded classes. Furthermore, their family networks can be very large and they have a chance to contact with high level managers in companies to find a job or trainee. For instance, when they graduated from university, they do not have to think about employment issue because their parents can easily find a well-situated job either using their wide range of networks or give a important role in their companies. What I mean is, they can be learnt management techniques of employees and organizations from their well-planned education programmes or trainees.

In conclusion, financial situation of families have an impact on children’s future with respect to level of budgets. If they are in poverty level, their children could be more experienced and resistant otherwise, their children could improve themselves with using their families’ large amounts of money.

[arnel]

This topic very is very hard for me. However, I try to share my essay and I want someone to correct this. Thank you very much.

There is an argument that children from well-off families are more likely do not have the necessary characteristics to face the stresses brought about by the demands of the world later in life than children from poor families. Apropos to this statement, I am in consummate discord with it.

First of all, children from poor families are undoubtedly experience hardship and patient. This element is important to deal with issues later in life. For instance, children have to sell products in order to obtain the food they want. At the same time, they have to wait for their wanted gifts for their birthdays because their families don't have enough money. Furthermore, some children from rich parents prefer to focus on their family businesses because in the near future these children will inherit their businesses. As a result, it is an easy life for them. This means that hardship and patient are not vindicated.

In contrary, rich parents can afford to provide the basic needs for their children such as best schools, foods, social connections and so on. For this reason, children from rich parents are more likely in position to better deal problems in life than children from poor parents. Also,children from well-off parents more likely develop superiority. This is because of the vast support and connection they have than their counterparts. For example, children from rich parents can prosper business easily because their parents provide them the best education in order to manage business successfully as well as vast connections of people to help the business.

To put this whole matter into a nutshell, I am adamant to the idea that children from rich parents are more likely do not have enough mechanisms to deal the issues later in life than children from poor parents. I believe that to deal with problems in adult world is irregardless of status in life.

[Jack]

household
future
life
themselves
work
elements

[Rohit]

It is true that children who are brought up by wealthy parents enjoy luxuries and a worry-free childhood. While this might make other less fortunate children envious, I believe that the these children are better prepared to deal with the problems of adult life.

Life does not always go according to our well laid out plans. Children who are brought up by wealthy parents usually are pampered in such a way that disappointments in life remain completely hidden till they become young adults. However, a child growing up in a family with financial limitations understands that not everything that one desires is achievable, at least not immediately. These children learn to enjoy the simple joys of life at a much earlier stage and are usually much happier. They also grow up to be much more creative. For instance, a child who does not get modern electronic games and gadgets, occupies himself with alternative hobbies such as crafts. They sometimes make innovative games themselves with items found in the general household.

Children who are raised by not so wealthy parents often tend to have much more independence and freedom. They do not have the restrictions or the necessity to adhere to a certain level of social standard that children with wealthy parents have to deal with. This independence helps them make much better decisions in their adult life. Children whose family does not have large amounts of money become more prudent with money. They understand the importance of money management. This aids them in handling crisis situations involving money in the future, more adeptly. Lastly, children with less money work much harder towards achieving their goals than those with abundant money. This becomes very important in organization where the latter group often struggle to take additional responsibilities and go the extra mile.

All in all children with less money usually grow up to be more independent, responsible, creative and happier individuals.

[GITHIN]

People have different views about whether or not money is essential to bring up a child to an ideal person. Although some people believe that wealthy parents raise their children better than poor parents, my humble opinion is that a child from a poor family background is better prepared to handle the problems of real life.

Children born in financially stable families are always lucky as they always immediately get whatever they need. Wealthy parents unnecessarily buy gifts and clothes for their children. Therefore, these children do not get a chance to know the importance of saving money rather than spending large amount of cash for unnecessary shopping. In future, this habit may leads to lose large amount of money. The children who are brought up by wealthy parents won’t be able to take right decisions by their own, as they constantly depend on their family for everything. Therefore, I believe that it will be really hard for them to deal with the problems of adult life when they will grow up.

On the other hand, in financially unstable families, parents will teach their children about careful handling of money, and importance of saving it for their future. In these families, children have to wait till their birthday to get a gift or new clothes. In future, these children can put into practice whatever they learned from their parents. They will be able to handle every situation with patience, which indeed, help them to deal with the problems of the real life.

In conclusion, even though money is necessary to prepare a better young generation, I agree with the fact that, a poor family can better train their children to handle with the problems of adult life than a financially stable family.

[shuchi]

societies
face difficulties during
basis
self
work
ingredient

[Chris_lyc]

1. family
2. adapt to
3. basis
4. themselves
5. work
6. effects

[JENA]

Hi Simon,

this is a really good second paragraph, but i am wondering what should i include in the third main body? my idea is to write how wealthy children face their adult life(ie.less prepared),but i am not sure whether it is right, is there any suggestions?

hope you can see this!

Thank you

[Gunay]

families
cope with
basis(life)
their capacity(themselves)
labour
help(skills)

[rodkshan]

hello
i am in srilanka
now i am following ielts caress
it is very hard
please give some idea

[saad al baldawi]

Hi
Hi Simon
my plan now to take an essay topic from your blog and try to built my own essay after watching your video about this essay and reading the ideas from e book BUT I have a problem from the beginning, while I am looking for ideas in e books about children upbringing, I couldn't find it. could you tell me where I can find this. I tried under family number 7 in e book but it seems too far from essay topic. can you help me please.

[Simon]

Hi Saad,

My ebook covers the main or most common topic areas, but it doesn't cover every possible topic or every possible aspect of each topic. I tend to use my blog lessons to cover less common topics or topic areas. So you probably can't use my ebook to help with the question in the lesson above. Use the ideas in the paragraph that I wrote, and try to plan some ideas of your own for the opposite view.

I hope this helps!