Can you help me with my Ielts writing task 2, please? Thank you very much.

It is becoming increasingly popular to have a year off between finishing school and going to university. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

Taking a gap year before going to university becomes common among students. To them, this precious amount of time is used to help them experience more about the world outside, expand their range of knowledge, or simply just relax after hard-working high school years. Besides these benefits, this year off, however, can also be a barrier for them when continuing with the university.

Students consider the gap year as the essential time for their development since there are many advantages the students receive from it. To start with, taking a gap year does not mean the students being lazy. Many of them use this year off to travel around the world in order to explore many exhilarating things such as cultures or living conditions in diverse areas; not only that, these trips also train them to be more independent and flexible at solving problems, which they can hardly learn from books. Besides, students use gap year as a time to relax and also consider carefully what they want to continue in the future. Rescheduling their lives, defining themselves, and setting goals make their next year be more productive and balance.

On the other hand, this year off at the same time also brings many insecurities to students. Firstly, there will be a hole of knowledge when students move to universities. Since there are not many students reviewing their studying in the gap year, they find it hard to catch up on the lectures of universities. Moreover, they need to accept that others’ knowledge will be much more than what they have, which is reasonable. Also, there are a large number of students who find themselves become lazier and unproductive after taking a break. It is such a challenge for them to get back on track.

There are many advantages and also advantages that students can take, which depends on how each person uses this off-year. If they actually put much effort on and set goals carefully for it, the gap year will be an excellent experience for their growth; in contrast, they hardly get out of their laziness.