Hello,

I recently took the ETS ScoreItNow service. I got 3 on both of my Issue and Argument essays. Can anyone please provide any insights on my essays? Thank you!

Issue - A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.

Response -

Average age of a typical student entering college is 18 years. In my opinion, same curriculum for all the students until they are 18 is not conducive to the student's individual ability in a specific field.

Every student has a natural tendency to perform well in some field than the others. If we do not hone his/her talents from a young age, that could lead to the student not realizing their talent ever. Studies have shown that young children have the highest capacity to learn and retain. We would simply be wasting time and peak learning years of a student by robbing them from the opportunity of doing something they can be good at.

It could be argued that a general curriculum covering most fields could be taught. This could have more negative effects than positive ones. For one thing, the curriculum would only be able to cover most basic fields. One cannot argue that all the fields could be covered. For example, a student may have a particular interest in marine biology which, the general curriculum may not cover at all or may be covered on a very basic -unsatisfactory for the student- level. Additionally, this general curriculum would be so vast in it's range that most of the topics would be covered in their most basic form -scratching the surface, if you will-which would not benefit any student.

This model of approach of same curriculum is limiting student's options in areas/fields of learning. We should be working to maximize the options for students in areas of learning and not thinking or proposing ways to limit them. The schools should encourage students to take courses of their choice no later than the age of 14. This would give a student sufficient time to experiment and learn about themselves, about what they are or can be good at.

So, with regard to the explanations given above, I believe that students should not be taught same national curriculum until they enter college. They should be given a choice much sooner than that.


Argument - In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes little of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational facilities. For years there have been complaints from residents about the quality of the river's water and the river's smell. In response, the state has recently announced plans to clean up Mason River. Use of the river for water sports is therefore sure to increase. The city government should for that reason devote more money in this year's budget to riverside recreational facilities.


Response -

There are many unstated assumptions in the argument which I will be stating in the following paragraphs.

Firstly, it is assumed that the river conditions are supporting for the water sports like swimming, boating and fishing. If the river's water is too cold or it is flowing too fast or some other condition rendering water sports undoable, that would completely destroy the argument. The city government would only be wasting money devoting it to the riverside recreational activities. It could be possible that the residents just want the river cleaned and devoid of any smell. They could be having sufficient water sports activities elsewhere. like on a lake or resort nearby.

Secondly, we do not know the survey set of the argument. It could be possible that the majority of people in the city are old and would not like or be able to do any kind of water sport. Then this would not be a good judgement on the city government's part to allocate more money in the year's budget to riverside recreational facilities.

Also, we do not know what budget is currently allocated to the riverside facilities. It could be possible that the current budget is more that enough for good facilities. The river just needed to be cleaned that the state government is taking care of. Increasing the budget under these conditions would not be profitable for the city. It will be money down the drain, so to say.

Additionally, nothing about city's other expenditures is mentioned. It could be possible that the city may be lacking budget for important and basic facilities for its residents or may be too far stretched. This could put additional burden on the city's monetary resources and the residents may end getting deprived of basic facilities. How could a jobless/homeless person enjoy or even pay for a riverside recreational activity.