July MUET Writing 800/4 paper

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!

I have just taken a look at the exam paper for writing and the report looks fine but the essay... OMG.. the essay is a KILLER!!! Even I am having a hard time trying to think of valid points... my poor students...

"The imbalance between the number of boys and girls pursuing university education creates social problems." To what extent is this statement true? Discuss. You should write at least 350 words.

Step 1: Understand keywords and brainstorm
Imbalance: more girls now in uni compared to boys
creates: causes
social problems: problems related to society such as ???
Stand?? Do you agree or disagree as to what extent is this statement true?

OMG... I can foresee the quality of MUET results for this session plummeting to an all time low. Sighs...

THE PROBLEM as usual is that students will immediately jump into describing the advantages or disadvantages of an imbalanced gender scenario. THE PROBLEM is also that they will describe POSITIVE EFFECTS.
If you did any of this WITHOUT LINKING TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS... then you have NOT FULFILLED THE TASK, ie you have gone out of topic. Boohoohoo.. judging form the comments below, I can see that most of you have only touched the surface of the issue.

Right, how should this question be tackled.
A simple way would be to totally agree or totally disagree (5 paragraphs minimum).
A high band essay would agree/disagree to a certain extent and try to discuss both pros and cons.

If you were to completely AGREE that the statement is TRUE, here are my suggested stand and points. 
Stand: Completely agree that some social problems can be attributed to the imbalance of genders in university.
1. gives rise to the LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexuals) trend which is a serious social problem although there seems to be not much concrete evidence to support this stand. 
2. minority gender would feel oppressed or discriminated which leads to social problems like depression, eating disorders, obesity, alcoholism, drug abuse or even suicide.
3. upon graduation, the influx of graduates of a certain gender may create an imbalanced workforce that may lead to social problems like inequality, unemployment in the short term and poverty in the long term. 

If you were to completely DISAGREE that the statement is TRUE, here are my suggested stand and points.
Social problems cannot be directly linked to the imbalance of boys and girls pursuing a university education as there are a number of other external factors.
1. Imbalance cannot be directly linked to social problems like free sex, baby dumping and abortion as these problems happen in society regardless of the balance or imbalance of gender composition, therefore, social problems are not gender specific.
2. Rather than create social problems, more female uni students than males leads to the empowerment of women and recognising them for their abilities therefore breaking stereotypes and creating more women leaders in entrepreneurial and management positions. 
3. Rather than create social problems, more male uni students than females leads to the increase of skilled manpower, increased opportunity for innovation and creative thinking in a predominantly patriarchal society.

As mentioned earlier, if you want to get a high band, you should be able to discuss both sides while justifying to which side you are leaning more towards. If I were a candidate, I would definitely first agree with the statement to some extent before leaning more towards DISAGREE with the statement. Hope this makes sense.

Before I end my post, I'd like to say that even for me it took some time to generate these ideas so this clearly indicates that this July writing paper is indeed extremely challenging. The only silver lining I can share with you is that they MIGHT, just might, lower the bell graph down so that the marks can be adjusted accordingly. All you can do is keep your fingers crossed!!!

Now who would like to submit a sample essay?? Good luck!