I recently gave the question below to a group of students and most of them made at least one major mistake that lowered their overall mark.
I thought it would be a good exercise to discuss and analyse this question in order to help you with future questions and raise your awareness about what examiners expect in the real test.
Please do the three exercises below without looking at the sample question and then watch the video below.
Exercise 1- Question Analysis
Look at the question below and simply think about how you might answer it. Think about what the examiner wants you to do. This should take you around 1-2 minutes.
The threat of nuclear weapons maintains world peace. Nuclear power provides cheap and clean energy.
The benefits of nuclear technology far outweigh the disadvantages.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Exercise 2- Ideas
Look at the question again and think about relevant main ideas that you could use in your article. These will be your main points. Again this should only take you 1-2 minutes.
Exercise 3- Structure
Try to fit your ideas into the general structure below.
Paragraph 1- Introduction
Paragraph 2- Main Body 1
Paragraph 3- Main Body 2
Paragraph 4- Conclusion
Common Mistakes
After doing these three exercises most people have already made at least one crucial mistake that lowers their mark. Below is a video that highlights the key mistakes people make in this question.
Sample Answer
It is often argued that nuclear arsenals keep the world safe and that nuclear energy is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly source of power. This essay totally disagrees that these benefits outweigh the drawbacks because the downsides are the eradication of mankind and the destruction of the planet.
Believing that major powers having nuclear warheads pointed at one another is a good thing because it ensures super powers will not go to war is foolish. This is because it only takes one mistake or a rogue commander to trigger a nuclear conflict and this is a conflict most of us would not survive. For example, during the Cuban Missile Crisis the United States and the USSR came extremely close to launching their missiles and this demonstrates that they are not actually the ultimate deterrent and nuclear war is possible.
The idea that nuclear fission is a clean source of energy has been dispelled by numerous high profile accidents at nuclear power plants. These disasters show just how harmful and long lasting a leak of nuclear material can be and the contamination is not worth it when other sources of energy are available. For example, the Fukushima disaster has polluted huge parts of the Pacific Ocean and it has been reported that fish as far away as California have dangerous levels of radiation. To make matters worse, solar and wind energy could replace nuclear energy tomorrow if there was the political will to do so.
In conclusion, this essay disagrees with the opinion that nuclear technology is beneficial rather than dangerous because the consequences of using nuclear energy in the wrong way are so catastrophic to both our species and the Earth itself.
Van says
I have been advised that we should not tell the reader what we are going to do in the introduction, for example :”This essay will show both views…” ; “in this essay, I will compare…” instead of writing a concise thesis statement. Actually, I do not really understand that point much, so could you explain? thanks Chris.
Frankie Serona says
Thank you so much, you really are a good help to everyone who would like take this test, especially me. If i passed this test i hope i could thank you personally.
anurasel says
Your ideas are grate!
first I thought I would write about advantages, but after reading your sample answer I changed my opinion.
Thanks a lot.
Ariana says
Great exercise. I just got it right because I knew it was tricky and really thought carefully about including the 2 main ideas on the main body paragraphs. Thanks Chris.
samta says
thank you sir,its really a great help.
Elena says
Thank you very much!
Aminath says
Amazingly easy to understand.
Thank You
Aminath
Ryan Holloway says
Helped me too, ty!
Micah says
Hi Chris! Thank you for this, it helped me a lot.
novie says
thank you
Naseem says
hi. you have written beautifuly
novie says
Hi Chris,
I tried to make an essay in regards to the topic above. I would really appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thank you!
Nuclear technology is thought to maintain the world peace through negotiations in using nuclear weapons and providing a clean and low cost nuclear energy. However, it is disagreed that this benefits will exceed the disadvantages. In this essay, several reasons will be discuss in the following passages.
First, the difficulty of managing nuclear waste, nuclear power plants are made up of radioactive materials which, in the event of explosion or during nuclear accidents, will bring about radioactive waste in the air or even in water causing harmful effects to human and other living organisms within its depths. One example for this is the nuclear accident happened in Japan on March 2011. It took the Japanese to stabilize the Fukushima power plants for nine months and about a couple of years to prevent the contamination of radioactive waste to the water.
Second, nuclear plants have limited life. Even though it is beneficial because it will not require fossil fuels like oil and coal to generate a power, the investment for construction are high and needs to be recovered as soon as possible. Thus, requiring a large amounts of money making it more expensive than using oil or coal for power.
Another thing is,nuclear technology can also be use by the military as weaponry during war, one concrete example for this are the used of nuclear bombs during world war 2 in Japan, though there is a treaty for using nuclear weapons, there is a possibility that nuclear bombs can be use in future war.
In conclusion, while others may find nuclear technology helpful, by merely looking at the historical events of which the nuclear technology is being used, these will outweigh the advantages it brought.
Erica says
Thank you! it really helps me. At first, I need to find another advantages and disadvantages except world peace and clean energy but I could understand now.
Sergei says
Hello Chris,
Thank you for a very interesting and detailed explanation!