GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 273
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Some people believe that the best way of learning about life is by listening to the advice of family and friends. Others believe that the best way of learning about life is through personal experience.
Compare the advantages of these two different ways of learning about life.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Model Answer:
Opinions are divided when it comes down to what is the most effective method of learning about life. Many feel that to heed family and friends’ advice is the most useful tool of learning about life while others think that personal experience is the best method for that. This essay will compare the benefits of both ways of learning about life.
By acting on family and peers’ advice, one can prevent certain issues or discover new opportunities faster. Friends and family very often can recognize one’s limitations that people are unable to find in themselves. Sometimes they can help unearth something good in the person, and other times they may be able to help him or her reveal a flaw. Therefore, taking parents’ and peers’ advice can help people improve themselves. For example, my parents once advised me to live my life in a manner that allows me to look at myself in the mirror and not to be ashamed. This piece of advice helped me to be a man of integrity. Some of their advice also helped me avoid pitfalls in life that could have been disastrous otherwise.
Personal experience, on the other hand, can be the only key to unlock ultimate knowledge; nothing else. Following advice is like believing something is useful because we have been told it is. It does not matter whether we believe it or not because it does not change reality. But when we learn from our experience, we simply know it. However, the problem is that if we act on parents’ and peers’ advice and believe that is the only way it has to be, we might limit manifold possibilities we could have opened up. Besides, in life, we will have to face unique circumstances, and no advice will come in handy except our previous experience in such situations.
To conclude, advice is crucial but only listening to advice restricts one’s possibilities. In contrast, knowledge obtained from personal experience can ignite an individual’s true potentials. That is the immensity of personal experience.