All essay topics
Task B · personal / reflective ~30 minutes in the real exam
Happiness & Contentment
The pursuit of a thing that retreats when chased. A practice set in the authentic Section II format — a set of related statements on one theme; your job is an essay that finds an angle engaging several of them.
Consider the following statements
- Happiness pursued directly is the one prize that retreats as we approach it.
- Contentment is wanting what you have; ambition is having what you want.
- We are happiest not when we are comfortable, but when we are absorbed.
- A life arranged to avoid all pain quietly forecloses on its joys as well.
Write a response developing your own view on the theme, engaging with one or more of the statements. Give yourself 30 minutes, planning included.
How to approach a Task B set
- 1Reflective doesn’t mean structureless: you still develop one idea about the theme — your lens is experience rather than argument.
- 2Ground it in something specific and real to you; the mark comes from what the experience lets you say about the theme, not from how dramatic it is.
- 3Let the essay arrive somewhere: the strongest Task B responses end with a view the opening didn’t yet hold.
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