Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The diagram below shows how recycled paper is produced from waste paper collected from homes and businesses.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Task 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
In many developed countries, fewer young people are choosing to train for skilled manual trades such as plumbing, electrical work and construction, even though these jobs are in high demand and often well paid.
What are the causes of this? What measures could be taken to address it?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
What a Band 8–9 response must demonstrate
Measured against the four official assessment criteria — specific to this test's two tasks.
Task Achievement
- Gives a clear overview that describes the process as a whole: a linear sequence of nine stages that begins with collection and sorting, moves through several cleaning stages at the mill, and ends with a finished reel of paper.
- Covers every stage without omitting the less obvious ones — in particular the two separate cleaning steps (screening removes solid contaminants; de-inking removes ink) — while giving more space to the stages that need explanation than to the simple ones.
- Identifies the natural groupings: preparation (stages 1–2), turning paper into clean pulp (3–6), and turning pulp back into paper (7–9).
- Describes, rather than evaluates: no comments on whether recycling is worthwhile or how the process could be improved.
Coherence & Cohesion
- Sequences the stages with varied markers ("once", "at this point", "having been screened", "the final stage") rather than "Firstly… Secondly… Thirdly" for nine steps.
- Paragraphs by phase (preparation / pulping and cleaning / sheet formation and finishing) so the report has shape instead of one long list.
- Uses referencing to carry material through the process ("the resulting slurry", "this sheet", "the pulp") so that each sentence connects to the previous one.
Lexical Resource
- Uses the process vocabulary from the diagram accurately and paraphrases where possible: bales, pulper, slurry, screened, contaminants, flotation, skimmed off, bleached, mesh, reels.
- Controls verbs of transformation: broken down into, converted into, separated from, drained through, wound onto.
- Avoids over-reliance on the diagram's exact wording by re-expressing it ("heavily soiled paper is removed" → "contaminated material is discarded").
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Uses the present simple passive consistently and accurately ("is sorted", "are pressed into bales", "is sprayed onto"), which is the natural voice for a man-made process.
- Varies sentence openings with participle and time clauses ("After being screened, the pulp…", "Once the ink has been removed…").
- Punctuates sequences correctly and avoids comma splices when linking consecutive stages; errors are rare.
Task Response
- Answers both questions with comparable depth: at least one full paragraph on causes and one on measures, rather than a long diagnosis followed by a single sentence of solutions.
- Identifies specific, plausible causes — the social status of university degrees, school careers advice that favours academic routes, the physical demands and perceived insecurity of trade work, the cost and length of apprenticeships — rather than "young people are lazy".
- Proposes measures that match the causes identified (e.g. if status is a cause, the measure addresses status), and shows who would implement them: governments, schools, employers or trade bodies.
- Engages with the tension in the prompt — these jobs are well paid and in demand, yet unattractive — instead of ignoring it.
Coherence & Cohesion
- A clear structure in which causes and solutions are kept in separate paragraphs (or clearly signposted within one), each with a topic sentence.
- Ideas progress logically; each solution is visibly linked back to the cause it addresses ("to counter this perception…").
- Cohesion through referencing and sequencing ("this imbalance", "such schemes", "a second measure"), not a linker at the start of every sentence.
Lexical Resource
- Uses precise vocabulary for the topic: vocational, apprenticeship, skills shortage, stigma, parity of esteem, earning potential, ageing workforce, career progression.
- Paraphrases the prompt ("skilled manual trades" → "vocational occupations", "hands-on professions") rather than copying it.
- Uses collocations naturally ("raise the profile of", "bridge the skills gap", "a shortage of qualified tradespeople") without forced rare words.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- A range of complex structures under control: cause-and-effect forms ("This has led to…", "As a result of…"), conditionals for proposals ("If schools were to…"), and relative clauses.
- Accurate modal verbs for recommendations ("should", "could", "would need to") and hedged claims about causes ("appears to", "tends to").
- Punctuation handles lists of causes and subordinate clauses correctly; errors are rare and never impede meaning.
Common traps for this specific test
The mistakes most likely to cost marks on these two questions.
Stages 4 and 5 are different cleaning operations: screening removes solid contaminants (staples, tape, plastic) with sieves; de-inking removes ink using air bubbles in a flotation tank. Writing "the pulp is cleaned" for both loses a key feature.
Candidates often think an overview is only for graphs. For a process, state how many stages there are, where it begins and ends, and that it is linear (not cyclical) before describing the steps.
Lifting every description unchanged earns little credit for Lexical Resource. Paraphrase where you can ("agitated until the paper breaks down" → "stirred until the fibres separate") while keeping technical terms such as pulper and flotation.
Switching to "they collect the paper" or "we sort it" introduces an unknown agent. Keep the present simple passive throughout, except where the material itself acts ("water drains through the mesh").
Explaining how hydrogen peroxide works or why chlorine is avoided is outside the diagram. Report only what is shown.
This is a two-question task. An essay that gives three causes and then a one-line "governments should promote these jobs" has not fully addressed the task and is capped at Band 6 for Task Response.
"Awareness should be raised" is not a measure. Say who does what: schools inviting tradespeople to careers days, employers paying apprentices a living wage, governments offering tax relief to firms that train.
The question is about why young people in developed countries are not choosing these trades. Essays about robots replacing builders or about migrant labour filling the gap are answering a different question.