What Academic Task 1 is marked on
Twenty minutes, at least 150 words, and one instruction: summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Every word of that matters. Selecting means not reporting everything. Main features means the shape of the data rather than its contents. Comparisons means the marks are in the relationships between the numbers, not in the numbers themselves.
The four criteria — Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy — each contribute a quarter of the Task 1 band, and Task 1 itself counts for one third of the writing score. The full descriptors are published and worth reading; the Writing guide explains what each one rewards in practice.
- An answer with no overview cannot reach the higher bands. This is the single most consequential rule on the paper, and the paragraph is missing from a large proportion of real answers.
- No opinions, no causes. Explaining why library visits fell is outside the task and earns nothing. Report what the data shows.
- Figures must be accurate and they must be selective. Quoting every number is as damaging as quoting none — it reads as a list rather than a summary.
- The tense follows the data. Dates in the past take past forms; a projection takes future forms; a process diagram normally takes the present simple passive.
Sample 1 — line graph
The task. The graph below shows the number of visits to three kinds of venue in one city between 2000 and 2024. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The same information as a table
| Year | Cinema | Library | Swimming pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 410 | 380 | 210 |
| 2006 | 470 | 330 | 235 |
| 2012 | 520 | 260 | 240 |
| 2018 | 610 | 190 | 290 |
| 2024 | 545 | 165 | 355 |
A model answer — 191 words
The answer
The graph compares how often people visited a cinema, a public library and a swimming pool in one city over a twenty-four-year period, with all figures given in thousands of visits.
Overall, the cinema was the most popular of the three venues in every year shown, while library use declined without interruption throughout. The most striking change is the reversal between the library and the swimming pool, which had exchanged positions by the end of the period.
Cinema visits climbed steadily from 410,000 in 2000 to a peak of 610,000 in 2018, an increase of roughly half, before falling back to 545,000 in 2024. The swimming pool followed a gentler but uninterrupted upward path, rising from 210,000 to 355,000, with the sharpest growth occurring after 2018.
Library visits, by contrast, fell in every period measured. Having stood at 380,000 in 2000 — only slightly below the cinema figure — they had more than halved by 2018 and reached 165,000 in 2024. The pool overtook the library at some point between 2012 and 2018, and by the end of the period was attracting more than twice as many visits.
What this answer does
- The overview is a separate paragraph, and it is secondTwo sentences, no figures, stating the three things a reader would want to know first: which venue leads, which direction each is moving, and what the single biggest change is. Putting it in its own paragraph makes it impossible for an examiner to miss, which matters more than it should.
- It selectsFifteen data points exist. The answer quotes seven. The ones it chose are the endpoints, the peak, and the crossover — the points that carry the shape. Quoting all fifteen would be longer, more accurate and worse.
- Comparison is doing structural workOnly slightly below the cinema figure, more than twice as many, an increase of roughly half. Each of these compares two numbers rather than reporting one, and comparison is what the instruction explicitly asks for.
- The paragraphing follows the data, not the yearsOne paragraph for the two rising lines, one for the falling one. Grouping by behaviour is what turns a description into an analysis; grouping by year produces the sequential list that caps Coherence.
- The tense is consistent and the aspect is usedPast simple throughout for a finished period, with a past perfect where the answer looks back from a later point (had exchanged positions, had more than halved). That is aspect used because the meaning needed it.
Against the four criteria
- Task AchievementCovers all three series, includes a clear separate overview, quotes accurate figures selectively, and makes no attempt to explain the causes. Comfortably above the length minimum without padding.
- Coherence and CohesionFour paragraphs with an obvious logic. The linking is carried by by contrast, while, before and a participle clause — not by a row of stapled-on connectives.
- Lexical ResourceClimbed, peak, fell back, uninterrupted upward path, overtook, attracting. The trend vocabulary is varied but never strained, and the same word is not reused for two different movements.
- Grammatical Range and AccuracyA participle clause (Having stood at…), two past perfects, a relative clause, a comparative structure and a passive-free but varied set of subjects. No errors.
This is the behaviour typically assessed around band 8 on Task 1: complete, selective, well organised, and accurate under real grammatical variety. What holds most real answers below it is not vocabulary — it is the missing overview and the decision to describe every point in order.
What would raise it: Very little would be gained by adding words. The one improvement available is precision about rate: the sharpest growth occurring after 2018 could name the actual gradient (65,000 in six years, against 50,000 in the previous twelve), which is the kind of comparison that separates a very good Task 1 from an excellent one.
Sample 2 — bar chart
The task. The chart below shows the percentage of adults in four age groups who read a printed book, an e-book or an audiobook in one year. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
The same information as a table
| Age group | Printed book | E-book | Audiobook |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18–29 | 52% | 41% | 38% |
| 30–44 | 58% | 39% | 31% |
| 45–59 | 61% | 28% | 19% |
| 60+ | 66% | 17% | 9% |
A model answer — 176 words
The answer
The chart shows what proportion of adults in each of four age groups reported using three reading formats over the course of a year.
Overall, printed books were the most widely used format in every age group, and the only one whose popularity increased with age. The two digital formats behaved in the opposite way, and the gap between the youngest and oldest groups was far wider for audiobooks than for anything else.
Printed reading rose modestly across the age range, from 52% of 18-to-29-year-olds to 66% of those over 60 — a difference of 14 percentage points. E-book use moved in the reverse direction, though less evenly: it was almost unchanged between the two youngest groups, at 41% and 39%, before dropping to 28% and then to 17%.
Audiobooks showed the steepest decline of all. More than a third of the youngest group used them, compared with fewer than one in ten of the oldest — a fall of 29 percentage points, and by some margin the largest difference between any two groups on the chart.
What this answer does
- It avoids trend verbs where there is no time axisThe answer uses rose across the age range and declined deliberately and only about movement along the age axis, and it never implies that anything changed over time. Candidates who import their line-graph vocabulary wholesale into a bar chart lose marks under Task Achievement for describing something the chart does not show.
- Percentage points, not per centA difference of 14 percentage points, not 14%. The distinction is small, it is correct, and examiners notice it.
- It quantifies in two registersMore than a third and fewer than one in ten beside the raw figures. Restating a number as a proportion is an easy and reliable way to demonstrate lexical range on a task that is mostly numbers.
- One irregularity is named rather than smoothed overThough less evenly, then the actual pause between 41% and 39%. Noticing where a pattern is not uniform is precisely what "selecting the main features" means.
Against the four criteria
- Task AchievementAll three formats and all four groups covered, a clear overview, accurate figures, and no invented explanation for why older readers prefer print.
- Coherence and CohesionOne paragraph per format after the overview — the natural grouping for a chart with no time axis.
- Lexical ResourceWidely used, in the reverse direction, almost unchanged, by some margin. Comparison vocabulary rather than trend vocabulary, which is the whole test here.
- Grammatical Range and AccuracyA relative clause with a possessive (whose popularity), a concessive, a comparative pair, and a fronted quantifier. Accurate throughout.
Also in the band 8 region, and for a different reason from the first answer: what earns it here is choosing the right language family for the chart type, which is a Task Achievement decision as much as a lexical one.
What would raise it: The last paragraph could carry one more comparison across formats rather than within one — for example, that audiobooks and e-books are separated by only three points among the youngest group and by eight among the oldest. Cross-series comparison is the hardest thing to do well in Task 1 and the most reliably rewarded.
Sample 3 — process diagram
The task. The diagram below shows how used glass bottles are recycled into new ones. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features.
The same information as a table
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Collection | Bottles taken from household bins |
| 2. Sorting | Separated by colour; metal and plastic removed |
| 3. Crushing | Broken into small pieces called cullet |
| 4. Washing | Cullet cleaned, then dried |
| 5. Melting | Heated with sand, soda ash and limestone |
| 6. Moulding | Blown into new bottles and cooled slowly |
A model answer — 168 words
The answer
The diagram illustrates the sequence by which a used glass bottle is processed and remade into a new one.
Overall, the process consists of six stages, beginning with the collection of used bottles from households and ending with newly formed bottles ready for use. It is a cyclical rather than a linear process, since the final product re-enters the same chain of use and disposal, and the only raw materials introduced from outside are those added at the melting stage.
In the first three stages the glass is prepared. Bottles are collected from household bins and taken to a processing plant, where they are sorted by colour and any metal or plastic is removed. The sorted glass is then crushed into small fragments known as cullet.
The remaining stages transform the material. The cullet is washed and dried before being melted in a furnace together with sand, soda ash and limestone. Finally, the molten glass is blown into moulds to form new bottles, which are then cooled slowly before leaving the plant.
What this answer does
- The overview counts the stages and names the shapeSix stages, a start, an end, and the judgement that it is cyclical. That last observation is the kind of thing a process overview should contain and most do not: it is a feature of the diagram as a whole rather than of any one box.
- The passive is the default, and it is the right defaultAre collected, are sorted, is crushed, is melted, are cooled. The agent is irrelevant at every stage, which is exactly when English uses the passive. Writing this in the active voice would require inventing a subject — workers sort the glass — that the diagram does not show.
- The six stages are grouped into two paragraphsPreparation, then transformation. Six paragraphs would be six sentences; one paragraph would be a wall. Grouping is a Coherence decision and it is the easiest mark on this prompt type.
- Sequencing is varied deliberatelyWhere, then, before being, finally. Note before being melted — a reduced clause rather than another and then. Three and thens in a row is the commonest thing holding a process answer at band 6.
Against the four criteria
- Task AchievementEvery stage covered, in order, with the overview naming the number of stages and the cyclical shape. No opinion, no invented causes.
- Coherence and CohesionTwo grouped body paragraphs and varied sequencing. This is where process answers usually lose marks.
- Lexical ResourceCullet is taken from the diagram, as it should be; fragments, molten, moulds, re-enters are ours. Labels from the prompt are reused where they are technical and paraphrased where they are not.
- Grammatical Range and AccuracyPresent simple passive throughout, a reduced passive clause, a non-defining relative, and a causal since. Accurate.
A process answer of this shape is the behaviour typically assessed around band 7.5 to 8. The ceiling on this prompt type is lower than on a data chart for most candidates, because there is less to compare and therefore fewer opportunities to demonstrate range.
What would raise it: Two things would lift it. Estimating a stage — heated to well over a thousand degrees — where the diagram gives no figure is risky and should be avoided; what is safe and valuable is more precision about what changes at each stage: state, size, purity, temperature. Naming the transformation rather than the action is what makes a process answer sound expert.
Sample 4 — map
The task. The maps below show the seafront of a coastal town in 1990 and today. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
The same information as a table
| Feature | 1990 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Along the shore | Coast road running the length of the seafront | Pedestrian promenade; no vehicles |
| West end | Fishing harbour | Marina |
| Centre | Car park | Public park |
| East end | Open ground | Hotel, with apartments behind it |
| Road | On the seafront | Rerouted inland, behind the new buildings |
| South of the site | Town centre | Town centre, unchanged |
A model answer — 183 words
The answer
The two plans show how the seafront of a coastal town was redeveloped between 1990 and the present day.
Overall, the area has been transformed from a working and largely functional waterfront into one designed for leisure and residence. The most fundamental change is the removal of the coast road from the shoreline, which made every other alteration possible; the town centre to the south, meanwhile, is the only part of the site to have been left untouched.
In 1990 a coast road ran the full length of the seafront, separating the town from the sea. To the west stood a fishing harbour, a car park occupied the centre of the site, and the eastern end was open ground.
Today the road has been rerouted inland, along the southern edge of the site, and a pedestrian promenade has been built in its place directly beside the water. The harbour has been converted into a marina, the car park has given way to a public park, and the open ground to the east has been built on, with a hotel facing the sea and apartments immediately behind it.
What this answer does
- The overview identifies a theme, not a list of changesFrom a working waterfront to one designed for leisure and residence. A map overview that says "there have been many changes" says nothing; naming the direction of the change is what the paragraph is for. Noting the one thing that did not change is the second half of a good map overview and is almost always available.
- One change is identified as causal — carefullyWhich made every other alteration possible. This sits right at the edge of what Task 1 permits, because the task forbids explaining why things happened. It is defensible here because it is a spatial observation rather than a motive: the road physically occupied the land the promenade now uses.
- Tense does the heavy liftingPast simple for 1990 (ran, stood, occupied), present perfect passive for the changes (has been rerouted, has been converted, has given way). That contrast is the entire grammar of a map task, and getting it wrong is the fastest way to lose marks on this prompt type.
- The description is orientedTo the west, the centre of the site, the eastern end, along the southern edge, immediately behind. A map answer without direction words is a list of buildings; with them it is a description a reader could draw from.
- Paragraph by time, not by buildingOne paragraph for the old plan, one for the new. The alternative — a paragraph per feature, comparing then and now inside each — also works and is sometimes better; what does not work is jumping between the two maps sentence by sentence.
Against the four criteria
- Task AchievementEvery feature on both plans is accounted for, the overview names the character of the change and the one constant, and nothing is invented.
- Coherence and CohesionA clean before-and-after structure with the orientation held consistent throughout.
- Lexical ResourceRedeveloped, rerouted, converted into, given way to, built on, facing the sea. The vocabulary of change applied to places rather than to numbers, which is a genuinely different set of words from the line-graph answer above.
- Grammatical Range and AccuracyPresent perfect passive, past simple, a non-defining relative, a participle clause (separating the town from the sea) and a fronted adverbial with inversion (To the west stood…). Accurate and varied.
Around band 8 again, and the reason is worth naming: the answer is doing something structurally different from the other three. Map tasks are the prompt type most candidates have practised least, and a candidate who has written six of them arrives with a large advantage over one who has written none.
What would raise it: The one addition available is scale. Nothing in the answer says how much of the site each feature occupies, and phrases like roughly a third of the frontage or a strip no wider than the old road would add precision that the current answer only implies.
The four prompts side by side
Read across this table rather than down it. The reason candidates who have only practised line graphs struggle on a map is not that maps are harder — it is that almost everything transfers except the two things that matter.
| Prompt type | The overview says | The dominant grammar | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line graph | Highest and lowest, direction of each line, the biggest single change | Past simple; past perfect for looking back; comparatives | Listing every data point in year order instead of grouping by behaviour |
| Bar chart (no time axis) | Which category leads, which pattern runs the other way, the widest gap | Present or past simple; comparative and superlative structures | Importing trend verbs — nothing rose if there is no time axis |
| Process diagram | How many stages, where it begins and ends, cyclical or linear | Present simple passive; sequencing adverbials; reduced clauses | Three consecutive sentences beginning and then |
| Map pair | The character of the change overall, and what stayed the same | Past simple for the old plan; present perfect passive for the changes | Describing buildings with no compass directions, so the reader cannot place anything |
What changes between Task 1 prompt types, and what does not.
What does not change is the architecture: one sentence of introduction in your own words, a separate overview paragraph with no figures in it, two grouped body paragraphs with specific support, and no conclusion. If you practise nothing else, practise producing that shape in twenty minutes.