AEAS writing examples with model answers

Template · The task

You have transferred to a new school, which is quite far away from your home. Your teacher asked you to tell your classmates how you go to school every day. In your short speech, you should mention the following points:
• How far away is your home from the new school
• What is your No.1 choice of transport
• If there was no public transport one day, what would you do
• Do you think your trip to school would be happier if you could go with a classmate or some friends

Template · Model answer (170 words)

My new school is about twelve kilometres from my home, so I cannot walk there any more. The trip takes me almost forty minutes every morning.

My first choice of transport is the bus. Bus number 22 stops two streets from my house and goes straight past the school gate. It is cheap, it is warm in winter, and I can read my book while I travel.

Sometimes the buses do not run, for example when there is a storm or the drivers are on strike. If that happens, my father drives me on his way to work. If he has already left, I ride my bicycle, although then I have to leave home half an hour earlier.

I would certainly be happier if I travelled with a friend. A long trip alone is boring, but with a classmate I can talk, practise my English and share my snacks. Last week a girl from my class got on at the same stop, and the journey felt much shorter than usual.

Template · The task

Your learning group is preparing a presentation on the topic of ‘tips for learning English’ for other students in your class. Write an article about your suggestions for learning English. Include the following:
• Explain how to sharpen your skills for reading, writing, listening and speaking.
• Describe what has been the most difficult part in your learning process.
• Say why you think your suggestions will be useful for other second language learners

Template · Model answer (219 words)

Everybody in our class wants to speak better English, but very few of us agree on how to get there. These are the four habits that have helped me most.

For reading, I stopped looking up every word. I read a whole page first, guess each meaning from the sentence around it, and check only the words that keep coming back. My reading speed doubled in a single term.

For writing, I keep a notebook of my own mistakes. Every time a teacher corrects me I copy out the corrected sentence, never the wrong one, so that the right version is the one I remember.

For listening, I watch an episode of a show twice: once with subtitles and once without. The second time is always easier than I expect it to be.

For speaking, I talk to myself. It sounds ridiculous, but describing my day out loud on the walk home costs nothing and nobody is there to laugh.

The hardest part for me has been speaking, because for a long time I was afraid of sounding stupid. That fear wasted most of a year. I think these suggestions are useful for other learners because not one of them needs a tutor, an app or any money, only ten minutes a day and the willingness to be wrong.

Template · The task

Some people suggest that high school students should take a gap year before they start university studies. Would you prefer this? Write an article for your school magazine giving your point of view. Give examples and reasons to support your argument.

Template · Model answer (245 words)

Every year a few students in my school announce that they will not be going straight to university. They intend to work, travel or volunteer first. The rest of us are then told, usually by an anxious relative, that they are throwing a year away. I disagree, and I would take a gap year myself.

The strongest argument for it is that eighteen is a poor age at which to choose a career. Most of us have never worked, never paid rent and never spent time with anyone outside school and family. A student who spends a year as a hospital orderly learns more about whether medicine suits them than three university open days ever could. My cousin did exactly that, changed from medicine to nursing, and finished her degree both happier and a year earlier than the friends who switched courses twice.

The risks are real and should be admitted. A year of nothing is a year lost, and the longer somebody is away from study, the harder it becomes to sit down and concentrate again. A gap year works only when it has a shape: a job with a start date, a course, a plan somebody else is expecting you to keep.

That is a condition, not an objection. Used properly, twelve months of ordinary work produces a better student than another twelve months of classrooms. Universities are not going anywhere. The chance to grow up before you choose will not come again.