Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The chart below shows the percentage of household waste that was recycled in five European countries in 2005, 2015 and 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Germany | Austria | Italy | Spain | Greece | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 46 | 52 | 24 | 31 | 15 |
| 2015 | 62 | 58 | 45 | 36 | 16 |
| 2022 | 67 | 59 | 53 | 34 | 17 |
Write at least 150 words.
Task 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
In many countries, people today sleep noticeably less than previous generations did, and health authorities are increasingly concerned about the effects of this on public health and productivity.
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: recycling rates rose in every country except Spain after 2015, the gap between the leaders (Germany, Austria) and Greece remained very wide, and Italy made by far the largest gain.
- Identifies the two exceptions rather than treating all five as "increasing": Greece barely moved (15% → 17% over 17 years) and Spain slipped back from 36% to 34% between 2015 and 2022.
- Supports the key features with accurate figures and uses them to compare countries and years (e.g. Italy more than doubled, from 24% to 53%; Germany overtook Austria between 2005 and 2015).
- Stays descriptive; offers no explanation of why Germany recycles more than Greece or what policies changed.
Coherence & Cohesion
- Groups the data by story — high performers, the fast improver, the two laggards — instead of writing one paragraph per country or one per year.
- Uses referencing and substitution ("the former", "both Mediterranean countries", "over the same period") so that country names and years are not repeated in every sentence.
- Places the overview after the introduction and keeps it free of figures; linking words ("by contrast", "meanwhile", "whereas") appear only where a contrast genuinely exists.
Lexical Resource
- Uses the language of comparison between groups accurately: roughly three times the rate of, narrowed the gap with, lagged far behind, overtook.
- Handles the stagnation and the small decline with appropriately weak verbs: edged up, remained virtually unchanged, dipped slightly — not "rose dramatically" for a two-point change.
- Varies the noun phrase: recycling rate, proportion of waste recycled, share, figure; avoids repeating "the percentage of household waste recycled" every time.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Controls complex comparatives ("more than twice as high as", "the only country in which the rate fell") and superlatives across three time points without error.
- Uses past simple for dated years and present perfect or "by 2022" constructions accurately when summarising the whole period.
- Places figures and percentages correctly within sentences ("at 67%, Germany…"; "a rise of 29 percentage points") and distinguishes percentage points from percent.
Task Response
- Answers both questions with comparable depth: at least two clearly distinct causes and two measures, each developed with a concrete example rather than a single sentence.
- Engages with the generational framing — what is different now compared with fifty years ago (screens, shift work, longer commutes, 24-hour commerce) — rather than writing a generic essay on why sleep matters.
- Proposes measures that genuinely respond to the causes identified (e.g. if late-night screen use is a cause, the solution addresses it) and that are realistic at the scale implied: individual habits, employer policy or public-health campaigns.
- Maintains a consistent position on which causes and measures are most significant, so that the essay reads as an argument rather than a list.
Coherence & Cohesion
- A clear structure that most examiners expect for this type: introduction, one paragraph on causes, one on measures, conclusion — or two causes each paired with its solution — but never causes and solutions mixed randomly.
- Each body paragraph has a single controlling idea signalled in a topic sentence; examples are introduced with appropriate phrases ("a case in point", "for instance") rather than appearing without warning.
- Cohesion is achieved through logical ordering and referencing ("this habit", "such schedules"), not through "Firstly… Secondly… Moreover…" at the start of every sentence.
Lexical Resource
- Uses topic-specific vocabulary precisely: sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm, blue light, shift patterns, chronic fatigue, cognitive impairment, public-health campaign, working-time regulation.
- Paraphrases the prompt effectively in the introduction ("sleeping noticeably less than previous generations" → "the average night's rest has shrunk from one generation to the next").
- Demonstrates flexible collocation ("erode sleep", "a culture of constant availability", "enforce a cut-off") without resorting to memorised phrases that do not fit the topic.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Uses cause-and-effect structures accurately and with variety: "as a result of", "owing to", "which in turn leads to", "so that", and participle clauses ("Faced with longer commutes, workers…").
- Handles modals of recommendation with suitable strength ("governments could require", "employers should be obliged to") and conditionals for predicted outcomes.
- Sentences are mostly error-free; articles, subject–verb agreement and comma usage around subordinate clauses are under control.
Common traps for this specific test
The mistakes most likely to cost marks on these two questions.
Greece moves from 15% to 16% to 17%. Technically this is an increase, but describing it as "Greece also increased" alongside Italy's 29-point jump misrepresents the data. A Band 7+ answer calls it stagnation or virtually unchanged and treats it as a key feature.
Spain is the only country whose rate fell between 2015 and 2022 (36% → 34%). Candidates who write "all five countries improved over the period" have misread the chart and lose Task Achievement marks, even though Spain's 2022 figure is still above its 2005 level.
Three years across five countries gives 15 data points. Reporting each one in turn produces a flat, unselective report. Choose the leaders, the fastest improver, the laggard and the exception — and leave the rest.
Austria led in 2005 (52% against Germany's 46%), but Germany overtook it by 2015 and was eight points ahead by 2022. This reversal of ranking is exactly the kind of comparison the rubric asks for.
Germany's rate rose from 46% to 67% — an increase of 21 percentage points, not 21 percent. Confusing the two is a Lexical Resource and accuracy error that examiners notice immediately.
Speculating that Greece's economy or Germany's laws explain the figures is irrelevant to Task 1 and wastes the word count. Describe, compare, stop.
The question asks why people sleep less than previous generations. A paragraph on the health benefits of sleep does not answer it. Every cause must be something that has changed between generations.
If the causes paragraph blames smartphones and long working hours, a solutions paragraph about "eating healthily" is disconnected. Examiners reward essays where each measure visibly addresses a cause already identified.