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Band 6.0CEFR B2Task 2286 words

Some people think that it should be compulsory for people to retake their driving test every 5 years. What are the advantages and disavantages of doing this?

The essay addresses both advantages and disadvantages of mandatory driving tests every five years, maintaining a clear overall stance. However, it suffers from several mechanica...

IELTS WritingCEFR B2Checked

Prompt

Some people think that it should be compulsory for people to retake their driving test every 5 years. What are the advantages and disavantages of doing this?

Essay review

Annotated essay

Interactive

Renewing your driving license every five years is thought to be mandatory for some people, however, some might argue. In this essay, we shall view both sides and discuss both the advantages and disadvantages.

To begin with, having to occasionally retake your driving test accounts for a sense of evaluation. Driving is a skill that can be easily forgotten, having a driving license doesn't mean you can safely drive. Hence, if you are to be evaluated every few years this can result in safer drivers which is directly proportionate to fewer car accidents. In Saudi Arabia, a country quite known for its horrific road accidents, drivers used to retake their driving test up to every 10 years, this attracted the attention of their government as the number of car accidents had drastically increased so they applied a new rule where residents are now required to retake the driving test every 2 years instead. This resulted in a dramatic decline in the number of road accidents in just a year.

On the other hand, retaking the test can account for some financial disadvantages as these tests are not cheap and having to pay for it every couple of years is not very convenient for some. Resulting in the fact that some people will carelessly drive with an expired license. Furthermore, adding to the inconvenience individuals usually need to book in advance in order to take the test and in most cases, it is always difficult to find empty seats which can be frustrating for some.

To sum it up, both perspectives have both their merits as well as drawbacks yet, having safer roads with fewer accidents occurring is definitely a strong advantage that should not be overlooked.

Improvement plan

Close to Band 6.5

Current Band 6.0

Target Band 6.5

  • Error-free complex sentence structures without comma splices
  • Consistently formal academic register throughout all paragraphs

Strengths

Task Response

Clearly outlines the essay's intent to address both perspectives.

Coherence

Establishes a clear thematic topic sentence for the first body paragraph.

Weaknesses

Comma Splices and Run-on Sentences

High

The writer frequently connects independent clauses with commas instead of full stops, semicolons, or proper subordinating conjunctions.

Informal Register Slips

Medium

The essay includes colloquial phrases such as 'not cheap' and 'we shall view', which detract from formal academic tone.

Priority improvements

  1. 1Eliminate Comma Splices and FragmentsThe essay contains multiple comma splices and dangling participle fragments. Fixing these will immediately improve grammatical accuracy and coherence.Impact: High
  2. 2Refine Academic RegisterAvoid contractions ('doesn't') and informal expressions ('not cheap') to align with formal academic writing conventions.Impact: Medium

Error patterns

Band & CEFR

Band 6.0

B2

Confidence: High

Assessment summary

The essay addresses both advantages and disadvantages of mandatory driving tests every five years, maintaining a clear overall stance. However, it suffers from several mechanical comma splices, informal register elements ('we shall view', 'a lot'), and some minor task/prompt phrasing mirroring. Coherence is generally maintained, but sentence boundaries in body paragraphs require better subordination rather than fused clauses.

Scoring criteria

Strengths

  • Demonstrates control over simple structures and some complex forms like conditional clauses ('if you are to be evaluated...').

Weaknesses

  • Repeated comma splices and run-on sentences throughout the text.
  • Fragmented clause structures and incomplete subordination in places.

Justification

Grammatical errors are frequent, particularly in sentence boundary control (comma splices), which pulls the grammatical score down to 5.5.

Writing stats

Words
286
Paragraphs
4
Estimated time
3 min read
Grammar issues
5
Lexical suggestions
4
Major issues
4
Minor issues
2
Top error pattern
Comma Splices
Confidence
High