Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The table below shows the number of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people in six world regions in 2005, 2012 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Region | 2005 | 2012 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western Europe | 96 | 121 | 124 |
| North America | 68 | 94 | 99 |
| East Asia | 41 | 79 | 98 |
| Latin America | 45 | 97 | 95 |
| South Asia | 8 | 68 | 87 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 12 | 57 | 83 |
Write at least 150 words.
Task 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Some people believe that every country should aim to produce the food its population needs rather than rely on imports, even when imported food is cheaper.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
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 two big stories: subscriptions rose in every region, and the gap between the richest and poorest regions narrowed dramatically — while also noting that Western Europe is the only region to pass 100 per 100 people.
- Selects and groups the data sensibly (the two high-income regions that started high; the two Asian regions; the two lowest starters that grew fastest) rather than reading the table row by row.
- Supports every main feature with accurate figures and uses them to compare: South Asia grew more than tenfold (8 → 87), whereas Western Europe rose by under a third (96 → 124).
- Spots the one exception — Latin America's slight fall between 2012 and 2020 (97 → 95) — and the general slowing of growth in the second period, without inventing explanations.
Coherence & Cohesion
- Organises logically — typically introduction, overview, then one paragraph on the regions that began with high coverage and one on the low starters that caught up — rather than six mini-paragraphs, one per region.
- Uses referencing ("the former", "these two regions", "over the same period") so that sentences connect without repeating every region name in full.
- Cohesive devices do real work ("by contrast", "meanwhile", "whereas") and are not stacked mechanically at the start of every sentence.
Lexical Resource
- Uses the vocabulary of rate and ratio precisely: subscriptions per 100 people, penetration, coverage, saturation, tenfold, more than doubled, a modest rise — and avoids the vague "a lot of phones".
- Handles the over-100 figure with appropriate wording ("exceeded one subscription per person", "more subscriptions than inhabitants") rather than the nonsensical "124% of people".
- Keeps register neutral and academic; no informal phrasing such as "went through the roof".
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Controls a range of structures: multiplier comparisons ("almost eleven times the 2005 figure"), participle phrases ("having risen sharply to 97 by 2012, Latin America…"), and complex sentences with "while/although".
- Uses past tenses consistently for the dated period, with "by 2020" and "between 2005 and 2012" constructions handled accurately.
- Writes figures and units correctly ("124 subscriptions per 100 people", not "124 per cent"); the majority of sentences are error-free.
Task Response
- States a clear position on the extent of agreement in the introduction — for example, agreeing for staple foods but not for everything — and sustains it through the whole essay.
- Engages directly with the "even if imports are cheaper" clause: a Band 8+ answer confronts the cost to consumers and taxpayers instead of ignoring the trade-off the prompt sets up.
- Develops ideas with specific, relevant support (e.g. export bans during the 2022 grain crisis; the water cost of growing rice in a desert country; food aid dependence) rather than generalities about "security".
- Addresses the question as asked — should every country aim for this? — recognising that a city-state or a drought-prone nation faces a different calculation from a large temperate one.
Coherence & Cohesion
- A clear four- or five-paragraph structure in which each body paragraph has one controlling idea signalled by its topic sentence.
- Ideas progress towards the stated position — acknowledging the strongest counter-argument and then showing why it does not overturn the writer's view — rather than listing points in random order.
- Cohesion is achieved through referencing and logical sequencing, not a linker at the start of every sentence ("Firstly… Secondly… Moreover… Furthermore…").
Lexical Resource
- Uses precise, topic-appropriate vocabulary: self-sufficiency, food security, comparative advantage, subsidies, tariffs, supply chains, arable land, staple crops, resilience.
- Paraphrases the prompt in the introduction instead of copying it ("produce the food its population needs" → "grow enough domestically to feed its own people").
- Uses less common collocations naturally ("at the mercy of", "a hedge against", "an insurance premium") without forcing in rare words for their own sake.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- A mix of complex structures under control: conditionals ("Were a major exporter to halt shipments…"), concession ("Although imports are cheaper in normal times…"), and relative clauses.
- Accurate use of modals and hedging ("is likely to", "would", "need not") to argue about degree, which an "extent" question demands.
- Punctuation supports complex sentences — commas around subordinate clauses, 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.
The unit is subscriptions per 100 people, not a percentage of the population. Western Europe's 124 means there are more subscriptions than people (some own several SIMs). Describing it as a percentage of people is a factual error that costs Task Achievement marks.
Latin America is the only region whose figure falls between 2012 and 2020 (97 → 95). Every other region rises. A strong answer names this exception; writing "all regions increased throughout" is inaccurate.
The headline feature is convergence: in 2005 Western Europe had twelve times the coverage of South Asia; by 2020 the ratio was under 1.5. An overview that says only "subscriptions went up everywhere" misses the main comparison the table invites.
Six regions and three years give 18 cells. Six paragraphs each narrating one row produce a flat list with no selection. Group regions by starting level and growth pattern, and quote only the figures that make the point.
Adding reasons ("because handsets became cheaper" or "due to economic growth") is irrelevant to Task 1 and wastes words. Describe and compare; do not account for the changes.
The prompt deliberately concedes that imports cost less. Essays that argue self-sufficiency is good because it is cheaper, or that never mention the price trade-off, have not answered the question that was set.
"I partly agree" is only a position if you specify where you agree — for instance, staples yes, tropical fruit no; large temperate countries yes, city-states no. A vague middle position caps Task Response at Band 6.
The topic is national food production versus trade, not diet or farming methods. Drifting into the benefits of local organic vegetables for individuals misses the economic and policy question.