A: 1. Challenges: whether the students have answered the questions and give their ideas; how to make the writing cohesion from the sentences level and coherent from the text level; the use of wide range of vocabulary and sentences structure.

2. Give students good models and analyze the good examples to ask students to follow and imitate its structure and words.

i was a bit surprised this sample essay was graded at band 7, higher than I thougt.

however, on a second thought, this essay has a very good structure: introdcution, main body and a conclusion. it answers the question well and presents good support to its arguments. ideas are linked by the effective use of cohensive devices.

For this kind of test, the biggest challenge will be how to get ideas. Chinese students are seldom asked to write over 250 words to present their arguments, thus they get stuck in generating ideas, particulary when they are asked to discuss from both sides. 

I normlly select related articles from internet and send those articles to them before they start to write. reading might help them get some inspiration from others.

I will definitely use the old exams to prepare the students. Also, some simulation exams.

it is difficult for me to prove precisely whether benefits outweigh disadvantages or vise versa, hopefully statistically. But after reading the sample writing, i knew i had worried too much. As long as you focus on either one of them, you can prove it outweighs the other. 

i will try to provide some e*sting format and train of thoughts.