Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The line graph below shows the average price of a kilogram of coffee beans on the international market between 2012 and 2022. The bar chart shows the volume of coffee exported by the five largest exporting countries in 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Average international price of coffee beans, 2012–2022
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per kg | 4.1 | 3 | 4.4 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 4 | 5.2 |
Coffee exports by the five largest exporting countries, 2022
| Brazil | Vietnam | Colombia | Indonesia | Honduras | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exports 2022 | 2.4 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
Write at least 150 words.
Task 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Many universities now deliver a large proportion of their teaching through recorded lectures, which students watch in their own time rather than attending in person.
Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
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 an overview that covers both visuals: the price fluctuated sharply, reaching its lowest point in 2019 before climbing to a 2022 peak that was well above the 2012 level; and Brazil and Vietnam together shipped roughly three-quarters of the five countries' coffee, with Brazil alone accounting for more than the three smallest exporters combined.
- Selects the key turning points of the line (the 2013 dip, the 2014 rebound, the slide to $2.50 in 2019, the steep rise to $5.20) rather than narrating all eleven years.
- Supports the main features with accurate figures and units — dollars per kilogram for the line, million tonnes for the bars — and never mixes them.
- Treats the two charts as separate but related: describes each, then makes a brief link (the price spike coincided with the year shown in the bar chart) without inventing a causal story.
Coherence & Cohesion
- A four-paragraph plan works best: introduction, overview, one paragraph on the price graph, one on the exporters. A Band 8+ answer does not merge the two visuals into a single muddled paragraph.
- Uses time-referencing devices ("over the following two years", "by 2019", "the subsequent recovery") so the volatile line reads as a sequence, not a list of disconnected points.
- Moves between the charts with an explicit signpost ("Turning to the export figures for 2022…") so the reader knows which data set is being described.
Lexical Resource
- Commands the vocabulary of volatility: fluctuated, slumped, rallied, bottomed out, surged, more than doubled — and avoids repeating "went up" and "went down".
- Handles the language of ranking and proportion for the bar chart: the largest exporter, accounted for roughly a third, trailed well behind, a distant fifth.
- Keeps register academic; "coffee prices went crazy" or "Brazil smashed the others" would cost marks.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Uses a range of structures for trend reporting: "having fallen to a low of $2.50 in 2019, the price then…", "despite a brief recovery in 2014…", "roughly three times the volume exported by Colombia".
- Keeps tenses consistent: simple past for the 2012–2022 period, with the 2022 bar chart also described in the past since the year has ended.
- Writes multipliers and units correctly ("$5.20 per kilogram", "2.4 million tonnes"); sentences are largely error-free.
Task Response
- Answers the outweigh question directly: states whether the benefits are greater than the drawbacks, and that judgement is visible in the introduction, developed in the body, and restated in the conclusion.
- Discusses advantages and disadvantages that are specific to recorded lectures watched in the student's own time — flexibility, pausing and re-watching, access for working or distant students, versus loss of live questioning, procrastination, thinner campus community, and lecturers who cannot gauge confusion in the room.
- Develops ideas with concrete illustration (a part-time student who works shifts; a mathematics lecture where a missed step cannot be queried) rather than slogans about "modern technology".
- Acknowledges the phrase "a large proportion" — the question is about scale, not about whether any recording should exist; a nuanced answer may argue that a blend is best while still giving a clear verdict.
Coherence & Cohesion
- Clear paragraphing: an introduction with a position, a paragraph on the main drawbacks, a paragraph on the benefits that are judged to be weightier (or the reverse), then a conclusion that explains why one side wins.
- Each body paragraph opens with a topic sentence and develops it logically; the weighing is shown through concession and contrast, not just listed points.
- Cohesion comes from referencing ("this flexibility", "such losses") and logical ordering rather than a stack of "Firstly… Secondly… Moreover…".
Lexical Resource
- Uses precise educational vocabulary: asynchronous learning, attendance, engagement, self-discipline, contact hours, peer interaction, pedagogy, accessibility.
- Paraphrases the prompt rather than copying it ("deliver a large proportion of their teaching through recorded lectures" → "have shifted much of their lecturing to pre-recorded video").
- Deploys collocations naturally: "at their own pace", "fall behind", "a poor substitute for", "bridge the gap".
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Uses comparative and concessive structures that an outweigh essay demands: "Although students lose…, the gains in … are far greater", "far more significant than", "the benefits are not merely convenience but…".
- Handles conditionals and hedged claims accurately ("Were lectures to be delivered entirely online…", "students who lack discipline are likely to…").
- Punctuation supports long sentences; errors are rare and do not obscure meaning.
Common traps for this specific test
The mistakes most likely to cost marks on these two questions.
The price ended higher than it started ($4.10 → $5.20), so some candidates write that it "increased over the period". In fact it fell for most of the decade, bottoming out at $2.50 in 2019, and only overtook its 2012 level in the final year. The volatility is the main feature.
The two visuals belong to one task. An answer with no overview of both and no link between them (the 2022 bar chart captures the year of the price spike) reads as two fragments and loses Task Achievement marks. Equally, do not invent a cause — the charts do not show that exports caused the price rise.
The line graph is in US dollars per kilogram; the bar chart is in million tonnes. Sentences such as "Brazil exported $2.4 million" are inaccurate and signal careless data reading.
Eleven data points in one line tempt candidates to narrate every year. Select the 2013 dip, the 2014 rebound, the 2019 low and the 2021–2022 surge; summarise the rest ("hovered between $3.40 and $3.60 from 2015 to 2017").
Candidates often write that Brazil exported "more than all the others combined". It did not: Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia and Honduras total 3.1 million tonnes against Brazil's 2.4. What is true is that Brazil shipped more than Colombia, Indonesia and Honduras together (1.4 million tonnes) and made up roughly 44% of the five-country total. Check the arithmetic before making a sweeping claim.
An outweigh question requires a verdict. Essays that present a balanced list and conclude "there are both pros and cons" cannot score above Band 6 for Task Response, however fluent they are.
The prompt is about recorded lectures forming a large share of teaching, not about online degrees, MOOCs or the pandemic. Keep every example tied to lectures that are recorded and watched later.
Most candidates discuss only student convenience. Stronger essays also consider what recording does to teaching itself — lecturers who cannot read a room, or who must re-record each year — which gives the weighing more depth.