Hi everyone! I’m Mr Aloysius, a Secondary English Curriculum Writer and Teacher at Lil’ but Mighty. For the 2025 O-Level Paper 1, one of the essay questions required students to discuss:

“Parents and grandparents have forgotten what it is like to be young, so it is better to get advice from friends instead.” How far do you agree?”

At first glance, this question seems straightforward: surely teenagers prefer talking to friends. But high-band argumentative essays go beyond personal opinion: they balance emotion with reason and logic. The key is to evaluate, not take sides.

This post unpacks the question, and guides you through how to plan and write a quality response.

Quick Summary

Question Focus: Whether young people should rely more on friends or on older family members for advice.

Purpose: To argue clearly and maturely, showing balanced perspectives about both generations.

Key Techniques:

• PEEL (Point–Example–Explain–Link) for argument structure.
• MMEPS (Moral, Mental, Emotional, Physical, Social) for developing depth.
• Topic sentences that guide the reader through each argument.
• Balanced tone: Confident but respectful.

Tone: Rational, reflective, and empathetic: show understanding of different perspectives.

Common Pitfalls:

• Overgeneralising (“All parents are outdated”).
• Sounding like a rant rather than an argument.
• Failing to acknowledge why older generations can still give good advice.

Understanding the Question

The question contrasts two sources of advice (friends versus parents and grandparents) and asks you to evaluate how far you agree.

• The clause “have forgotten what it is like to be young” implies emotional distance or generational gap.
• “Better to get advice from friends instead” requires evaluation: Better in what sense? More relatable? More accurate? Easier to accept?

A top-band essay must address both sides. Even if you personally feel that friends understand you more, you must acknowledge that older generations still provide experience and long-term perspective. Balance between empathy and experience: friends may empathise, while adults provide experience and foresight.

A simple way to think about this question is to ask: Under what circumstances is friends’ advice better, and when is adults’ advice still superior?

Evaluative Planning with MMEPS

The evaluation should be grounded in MMEPS. Each argument must show contrast: what friends can provide versus what parents or grandparents can still offer.

1. 
   Mental: Relatability vs Perspective

Friends understand the mental pressures of youth. They attend the same schools, face similar assessments, and navigate the same digital environments. Their advice often feels immediately relevant.

However, adults provide something teenagers cannot replicate. They have lived through both successes and failures. Their perspective is shaped by long-term outcomes and learning from mistakes.

Evaluative example:
While a friend may offer relatable coping strategies for exam stress, a parent can explain how to manage pressure over time. This comparison shows that relatability helps in the moment, but perspective shapes long-term resilience.

2. Moral: Shared confusion vs tested judgement

Teenagers often share the same uncertainties about right and wrong. Their moral compass is still forming. A friend can listen and relate, but may reinforce impulsive or risky decisions.

Parents and grandparents use moral frameworks shaped by real consequences. Their advice is grounded in what they have seen or personally experienced.

Evaluative example:
Even when peers mean well, they may encourage choices driven by emotion rather than ethics. Adults, however, can warn against actions that carry serious consequences. This suggests that moral guidance is better provided by those with tested judgement, not those still finding it.

3. Emotional: Comfort vs accountability

Friends excel at empathy. They listen without judgement and validate feelings. This emotional support can be comforting, especially when the issue is personal or sensitive.

Adults offer a different form of emotional care. It is less about validation and more about stability. Parents and grandparents can provide accountability, boundaries, and reassurance.

Evaluative example:
Although peers can soothe temporary distress, they may lack the emotional distance to challenge unwise choices. Adults can separate emotion from action, which leads to clearer decisions.

4. Physical: Shared experiences vs protective instinct

Friends understand the physical environment teenagers live in. They know school routines, daily habits, and common stressors. Their suggestions often match a teenager’s lifestyle.

Adults view physical decisions with a protective lens. Their instincts are shaped by responsibility. They tend to consider safety, health, and long-term impact more carefully.

Evaluative example:
A peer might advise joining a late-night outing because it feels fun and harmless. A parent will consider safety, fatigue, and commitments the next morning. The difference shows when advice should lean toward caution.

5. Social: Peer dynamics vs life transitions

Friends understand teenage social systems. They can guide you through friendship tensions, school culture, and online behaviour. Their advice feels current because they operate within the same social norms.

Parents and grandparents draw from a broader understanding of human relationships. They have lived through shifting friendships, work relationships, and family responsibilities. They recognise potential challenges that teenagers overlook.

Evaluative example:
A friend may help you navigate a disagreement on social media, but a parent can explain how to repair trust in deeper, long-term relationships. This broader perspective is something most peers cannot offer.

Effective Condensed Evaluative Comparisons

• While friends understand your emotions because they experience the same struggles, they often need guidance themselves, whereas adults can warn against risks based on real results.
• Even if older generations appear disconnected from youth culture, their guidance is stronger in situations where teenagers have not experienced the consequences yet.
• Although friends offer relatable and comforting advice, adults provide the clarity that comes from lived experience.
• Friends may help you feel understood, but parents help you think more clearly.
• Peer advice fits the present moment. Adult advice prepares you for the future.

Writing a Balanced Introduction

Teenagers often feel that the adults in their lives no longer remember what it is like to be young. Friends seem more relatable, while parents and grandparents may appear distant or outdated. Yet adult advice is shaped by experience, and peer advice is shaped by empathy, so both offer different forms of value. In my view, the best guidance depends on the situation, and a balance of perspective and relatability leads to clearer and safer decisions.

This introduction works for several reasons:

• Balanced framing: It avoids taking sides immediately. Instead, it recognises the strengths of both groups. This shows maturity and evaluative awareness.
• Clear contrast: The introduction sets up a natural comparison – relatability from friends versus perspective from adults. This immediately makes clear the direction of the essay.
• Logical stance: The final line gives a clear, nuanced position, that the best advice depends on context. This sets up a well-reasoned discussion rather than a personal recount.

Developing Body Paragraphs using PEEL

Body Paragraph 1 – Friends Understand the Present (Agree)

Point: Teenagers often turn to friends because peers share the same environment.

Explain: They face similar pressures from school, social media, and identity, which increases emotional relatability. A 2022 survey on youth mental health in Singapore noted that older teenagers are more likely to confide first in peers because they fear judgment from adults, or perceive that the adults do not understand them. This immediacy creates trust. A friend understands the insecurity arising from an Instagram post not getting enough likes, or the tendency to overthink when a text message is not replied to. Such empathy helps teenagers feel heard rather than corrected.

Example: Once, I sent a query in my class group chat and watched it being sidelined without a single reply. Everyone carried on discussing something else, and the silence felt overbearing to me. My friend sensed how insecure I became and reminded me that people often get distracted or forget to respond. She told me not to overthink it, and that if it mattered, I could always resend the message. Her reassurance helped me see that the silence was not judgment, but simply a moment of being overlooked in a busy chat. 

Link: This shows why peer advice often feels relevant for immediate struggles that are emotional, and works wonders in helping one feel supported.

Body Paragraph 2 – Parents and Grandparents Bring Perspective (Disagree)

Point: Parents and grandparents may not understand every trend, but they bring stability that peers cannot replicate.

Explain: Their guidance is shaped by consequences they have already lived through. Advice about balancing academics, health, and friendships is based on real outcomes, not assumptions. Studies on youth burnout in Singapore show rising stress among students who push themselves without boundaries. Adults recognise these dangers earlier because they have experienced similar patterns at work or home.

Example: When my mother insisted that I rest during exam season, I dismissed it as outdated advice. She often reminded me to pace myself, space out revision, and avoid leaving everything to the last minute. I brushed it off because I assumed I could handle the pressure and believed that working longer automatically meant working better. This confidence was misplaced. By the time the year-end exams approached, I struggled to focus, felt mentally drained, and experienced several emotional breakdowns. My mother later explained that she had faced similar problems early in her career when she pushed herself without structure. Her point was not about control, but about time management and self-discipline. Her experience showed why adult guidance can prevent mistakes, which teenagers may otherwise make when relying only on peers at the same life-stage.

Link: This shows how adult guidance adds long-term clarity that peer support cannot always provide.

Body Paragraph 3 – Evaluating the Generational Gap (Analysis)

Both friends and adults provide valuable guidance, but their strengths work best in different situations. Friends offer empathy and emotional understanding, which helps when dealing with immediate pressures such as school stress, social conflicts, or personal insecurities. Parents and grandparents bring perspective and foresight, which is crucial when decisions carry long-term consequences or involve risks that teens may not fully anticipate. The generational gap does not mean that adults cannot relate; it means their advice may be delivered differently, often through caution rather than shared experience. Teenagers benefit most when they recognise that peer support can help them manage present challenges, while adult guidance helps them plan and avoid preventable mistakes. Effective decision-making often comes from knowing when to seek empathy and when to seek experience.

Body Paragraph 4 – Conclusion

In conclusion, friends understand the pressures teenagers face, so their advice can feel more honest and immediate. However, it is not fair to assume that parents and grandparents have forgotten their youth. It is important to recognise vast life experience, while acknowledging also that their communication styles are different. Their advice is shaped by consequences we have not faced yet, which makes it useful when choices affect our future. Hence, it is not simply better to choose one group over the other. It depends on the situation. For emotional support, friends help most. For long-term guidance, adults are usually clearer. The smartest move is thus to listen to both. I will always remember the words of wisdom someone shared with me: “Take advice from people who know how you feel, and also from people who know where you are going.”

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I hope that you are much clearer about how to unpack the question, how you can do evaluative planning to help you craft your essay in a structured manner and also how to develop the various parts of your essay to tackle this question effectively! In Part 2 of decoding the O Level Argumentative essay 2025, we will share with you common pitfalls you must avoid and also useful authentic resources that will make a difference to your writing. Stay tuned!