Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The two maps below show the centre of the village of Ashwell in 1980 and in 2020.
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 large cities, a growing number of people report feeling lonely and socially isolated, even though they live and work surrounded by others.
What problems does this cause? What solutions can you suggest?
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 captures the big picture: the village changed from a largely agricultural settlement into a residential one, with most farmland built over and the centre becoming more commercial.
- Groups the changes sensibly (land-use changes to the north and south; changes to the shops along Main Street; changes to public facilities) rather than listing each item in map order.
- Reports what disappeared as well as what appeared: the pond, the post office and most of the farmland were lost, while the village green shrank to make room for a playground.
- Stays purely descriptive: no guesses about why the bypass was built or whether the changes were good for residents.
Coherence & Cohesion
- Organises by area or by type of change (new housing; expanded services; new road) so that each paragraph has a single focus, rather than zig-zagging around the map.
- Uses location language accurately ("to the north of Main Street", "on the western side of Church Lane", "at the southern edge of the village") to connect features without repeating "there is".
- Cohesive devices show relationships between the two maps ("whereas in 1980", "by 2020", "in its place") and are not stacked mechanically.
Lexical Resource
- Uses a range of change verbs in the passive: was converted into, was demolished, was built over, was extended, was replaced by, was filled in, was constructed along.
- Names features precisely (farmland, housing estate, bypass, care home, supermarket, playground) and avoids vague terms such as "things" or "stuff".
- Keeps register neutral and academic; no evaluative language such as "sadly, the pond was lost".
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Controls the passive voice and perfect tenses for unknown agents and completed change ("the pond had been removed", "a bypass has been constructed").
- Uses prepositional and participle phrases accurately to fix location ("the school, situated east of Church Lane, was more than doubled in size").
- The majority of sentences are error-free, with accurate articles for named and unnamed features ("the church", "a new supermarket").
Task Response
- Answers both questions with roughly equal weight: identifiable problems caused by urban loneliness and concrete solutions, not a single paragraph of vague suggestions.
- Engages with the paradox in the prompt — isolation despite density — rather than writing a generic essay about loneliness among the elderly or in rural areas.
- Develops problems with specifics: effects on physical and mental health, reduced civic participation, economic cost to health services, and vulnerability of particular groups such as migrants or older people living alone.
- Proposes solutions that match the problems described and are realistic at the level named (city planning, employers, community organisations, individuals) rather than "the government should do something".
Coherence & Cohesion
- A clear structure — introduction, one or two paragraphs on problems, one or two on solutions, conclusion — in which each body paragraph has one controlling idea signalled by a topic sentence.
- Solutions are explicitly linked back to the problems they address, so the essay reads as an argument rather than two unrelated lists.
- Cohesion comes from referencing and logical sequencing ("this", "such schemes", "the same people") rather than a linker at the start of every sentence.
Lexical Resource
- Uses precise, topic-appropriate vocabulary: social isolation, anonymity, community cohesion, third places, intergenerational, co-housing, public realm, outreach.
- Paraphrases the prompt in the introduction ("surrounded by others" → "despite living in densely populated areas") rather than copying it.
- Less common collocations are used naturally ("erode a sense of belonging", "fall through the cracks", "foster casual contact") without forced rare words.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- A range of complex structures under control: cause-and-effect clauses ("because few residents know their neighbours, …"), conditionals for solutions ("If planners were to require…"), and relative clauses.
- Accurate use of modals to distinguish established problems from proposed measures ("does lead to" versus "could encourage", "would reduce").
- Punctuation supports longer sentences — no comma splices — and errors are rare and never impede meaning.
Common traps for this specific test
The mistakes most likely to cost marks on these two questions.
Map tasks tempt candidates to describe each building in turn. Without a one- or two-sentence overview (the village became predominantly residential and its centre more commercial, with a bypass added to the south), the answer is capped at Band 6 for Task Achievement no matter how detailed it is.
Three features vanished: the pond, the post office and the farmland west of Church Lane. Reporting only additions gives an incomplete comparison; a strong answer pairs each loss with what replaced it (the pond gave way to a car park; the post office to a supermarket).
"There is a new road at the bottom" is not academic description. Use compass points and named roads: the bypass runs east to west along the southern edge of the village, parallel to Main Street.
Not everything was replaced outright. The school was extended, the village green was reduced to make room for a playground, and some farmland to the south-east survived. Band 8+ answers distinguish these from wholesale demolition.
Suggesting that the bypass was built to reduce traffic, or that the care home reflects an ageing population, is not supported by the maps and wastes words. Describe and compare only.
The prompt is specifically about people who are lonely despite being surrounded by others in cities. Essays about isolated villages or elderly people in the countryside miss the question and lose Task Response marks.
If your problems paragraph discusses mental health and civic disengagement, your solutions must address those — community spaces, neighbourhood schemes, workplace initiatives — not an unrelated point about cheaper housing.
Both questions carry equal weight. Spending 250 words on problems and 40 words on solutions, or vice versa, leaves one question underdeveloped and caps the Task Response score.