Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The pie charts below show how adults in one country divided their leisure time between six activities in 2002 and 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| 2002 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| TV and streaming | 34 | 29 |
| Socialising | 22 | 15 |
| Reading | 14 | 7 |
| Sport and exercise | 12 | 14 |
| Hobbies and crafts | 12 | 8 |
| Online and gaming | 6 | 27 |
Write at least 150 words.
Task 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Some people believe that historic buildings should always be preserved, whatever the cost. Others argue that old buildings should be replaced with new ones when they no longer serve a practical purpose.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
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: screen-based activity rose dramatically at the expense of reading, hobbies and socialising, while television remained the single largest category in both years and sport was the one traditional activity to grow.
- Selects the headline changes — online and gaming more than quadrupling from 6% to 27%, reading halving from 14% to 7% — rather than mechanically reporting all twelve figures.
- Makes comparisons across the two years and within each year (e.g. in 2022 online activity almost matched TV; in 2002 it was the smallest slice by a wide margin).
- Treats the figures as shares of leisure time, not as hours or numbers of people, and offers no reasons for the shifts.
Coherence & Cohesion
- Groups the activities logically — typically screen-based activities together, then the declining traditional pursuits, with sport noted as the exception — instead of six separate sentences in pie-slice order.
- Uses referencing ("the former", "this activity", "the remaining categories") so that activity names are not repeated in every clause.
- Cohesive devices signal real relationships ("whereas", "over the two decades", "by contrast") and are not stacked at the start of every sentence.
Lexical Resource
- Uses the vocabulary of proportion fluently: share, proportion, accounted for, made up, constituted, a fifth, just over a quarter, roughly a third.
- Varies change language with the right strength: online activity soared / more than quadrupled; reading halved; sport edged up; TV dipped slightly but remained dominant.
- Keeps register neutral and academic — "leisure time", "pursuits", "activities" — avoiding informal phrasing such as "people loved gaming".
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Controls comparative structures with fractions and multipliers: "more than four times its 2002 share", "half as large as", "almost as much time as".
- Uses past simple for both years accurately, with "by 2022" and "twenty years earlier" constructions handled correctly.
- Punctuates percentages and lists correctly; the majority of sentences are error-free and sentence length is varied.
Task Response
- Addresses both views fully — the case for unconditional preservation and the case for replacing buildings that have outlived their use — rather than dismissing one in a sentence.
- States a clear personal position in the introduction and sustains it; a nuanced stance (e.g. preserve where heritage value is genuine, but allow adaptive reuse or replacement elsewhere) is welcome provided it is explicit and consistent.
- Develops each view with a specific illustration — a disused mill converted into flats, a listed facade kept in front of a modern office, a crumbling warehouse demolished for housing — rather than generalities about "culture" and "progress".
- Engages with the phrases whatever the cost and no longer serve a practical purpose, which are the real hinge of the debate.
Coherence & Cohesion
- A clear four- or five-paragraph structure: introduction with position, one paragraph per view, a paragraph (or integrated sentences) giving the writer's reasoned judgement, and a conclusion.
- Ideas progress rather than pile up: each body paragraph moves from the principle to an example to its limitation, so the writer's own view emerges naturally.
- Cohesion through referencing and paraphrase ("such structures", "this approach", "the latter position") instead of a mechanical chain of linkers.
Lexical Resource
- Uses precise, topic-appropriate vocabulary: heritage, conservation, listed building, adaptive reuse, restoration, demolition, urban regeneration, architectural merit, maintenance burden.
- Paraphrases the prompt in the introduction instead of copying it ("no longer serve a practical purpose" → "have become functionally redundant").
- Uses less common collocations naturally ("a sense of continuity", "frozen in time", "breathe new life into") without forcing in rare words for their own sake.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- A mix of complex structures under control: concession ("While a cathedral is irreplaceable, a 1960s car park is not"), conditionals ("If every old building were retained, cities would…"), and passive forms for describing what is done to buildings.
- Accurate use of modals for hedged argument ("should", "could be converted", "is unlikely to"), which a question about policy 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.
Reading, socialising and hobbies all fell, so it is easy to write that "every traditional activity declined". Sport and exercise rose from 12% to 14%. A strong answer singles this out as the one non-screen activity to grow.
TV and streaming fell by only five points and was still the largest category in 2022 (29% against 27%). Online activity came close to matching it but did not overtake it. Precision on this near-crossover separates Band 7 from Band 8.
Two separate paragraphs — one listing all six 2002 figures, one listing all six 2022 figures — contain no comparison. The task requires change between the years; organise by activity group, not by chart.
The data shows the proportion of leisure time, not the number of hours. "People spent fewer hours reading" cannot be inferred; total leisure time is unknown. Write "the share of leisure time devoted to reading halved".
Smartphones, streaming services and the pandemic are not in the data. Reasons belong in Task 2; in Task 1 they are irrelevant and waste the word count.
Candidates who care about heritage often give the replacement view a single dismissive sentence. A discussion essay needs a genuine, developed case for both positions before your own view; imbalance caps Task Response at Band 6.
The first view is not simply "preserve old buildings" but preserve them regardless of expense. Engaging with that absolute — maintenance costs, safety, land scarcity — is what makes the discussion specific to this prompt.
Your opinion must be a position, not a summary. "It depends on the building" is acceptable only if you say what it depends on — heritage value, structural condition, the possibility of adaptive reuse — and apply it consistently.