Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The maps below show the area around a city-centre railway station in 2000 and in 2024.
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 countries, levels of participation in sport and physical activity among teenagers have been falling in recent years.
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 of the overall transformation: the area in front of the station changed from a vehicle-oriented space (bus station, car park, taxi rank) to one built for pedestrians, cyclists and offices, with the bus station relocated to the south.
- Selects and groups the changes — demolitions and replacements, relocations, and what stayed the same (Station Road, High Street, the park, the shops, the hotel) — rather than listing every building in map order.
- Describes location accurately using compass points and relative position ("immediately south of the station", "on the eastern side of High Street", "in the south-west corner").
- Stays descriptive: no comments on whether the redevelopment improved the area or why it was carried out.
Coherence & Cohesion
- Organises the report logically — typically an introduction, an overview, then one paragraph on the northern half (the station frontage) and one on the southern half, or one on replacements and one on relocations and additions.
- Uses referencing ("this site", "the former car park", "the latter") so that the same features are not named in full every time.
- Cohesive devices mark change and contrast ("whereas", "in its place", "by 2024", "to the south of this") and are not stacked mechanically.
Lexical Resource
- Uses precise vocabulary for change: demolished, converted into, replaced by, relocated to, extended, pedestrianised, constructed on the site of.
- Varies location language: adjacent to, opposite, alongside, at the junction of, bordering the park.
- Names the features correctly (cycle hub, office block, retail units, pedestrian square) and keeps the register neutral.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- Controls the passive voice naturally for map changes ("the car park was replaced by an office block"; "the taxi rank had been moved").
- Uses past simple and present perfect appropriately for a 2000 versus 2024 comparison, and handles "while/whereas" contrasts accurately.
- Uses prepositions of place precisely ("to the east of", "on the corner of", "between the park and High Street"); errors are rare.
Task Response
- Answers both questions fully — causes and measures — with at least two well-developed points for each, rather than three causes and a single sentence of solutions.
- Engages with the teenage focus: screen time, academic pressure in the exam years, the drop-off when sport stops being compulsory, cost of clubs, self-consciousness and body image — not a generic essay about adults being lazy.
- Proposes measures that follow from the causes identified (if cost is a cause, the solution addresses cost) and attributes them to realistic actors: schools, local councils, sports bodies, parents, technology companies.
- Develops ideas with specific examples, e.g. how a school timetable could protect activity time, or how free municipal facilities in the evenings could reach teenagers who cannot afford clubs.
Coherence & Cohesion
- A clear structure — most commonly an introduction, one paragraph on causes, one on solutions and a brief conclusion — with each paragraph having a single controlling idea signalled by its topic sentence.
- Causes and solutions are connected, so the essay reads as a single argument rather than two unrelated lists.
- Cohesion is achieved through referencing and logical sequencing rather than a linker at the start of every sentence ("Firstly… Secondly… Thirdly…").
Lexical Resource
- Uses precise topic vocabulary: sedentary, screen time, curriculum, extracurricular, drop-out rate, participation, facilities, subsidised, peer pressure, adolescence.
- Paraphrases the prompt effectively ("levels of participation… have been falling" → "fewer adolescents are taking part in regular exercise").
- Uses collocations naturally ("fall by the wayside", "a sedentary lifestyle", "take up a sport", "competing demands") without forcing in rare words.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
- A controlled range of structures: cause-and-effect forms ("as a result of", "this has led to"), conditionals for proposals ("If schools were to ring-fence…"), and relative clauses.
- Accurate modals for recommendations ("should", "could", "would need to") that distinguish between what is required and what is merely possible.
- Present perfect and present simple used correctly for a current trend ("participation has declined"; "teenagers spend"); punctuation supports complex sentences with no comma splices.
Common traps for this specific test
The mistakes most likely to cost marks on these two questions.
Map tasks still require an overview. A strong answer states in general terms that the station frontage was transformed from a space for buses, cars and taxis into one for pedestrians, cyclists and offices, and that the bus station moved south, before giving any detail.
Working clockwise round the map and mentioning every feature produces a flat inventory. Group the changes (replacements, relocations, additions, unchanged features) and select the most significant ones.
The task is a comparison. Each change should be anchored to what was there in 2000 ("the car park south of the station had been replaced by an office block"), not simply described as it now is.
Station Road, High Street, the park, the shops and the hotel are unchanged. Noting this briefly shows you have read both maps fully and provides a natural contrast with the areas that were redeveloped.
The bus station and the taxi rank were not removed; they were moved. Writing that the bus station "was demolished" without saying a new one was built to the south misreports the map.
"Next to", "near" and "on the right" are imprecise. Use compass points and named reference features: "to the east of High Street", "between the square and the shops".
Three paragraphs of causes and one sentence on measures does not answer the second question. Give each question roughly equal weight and make sure at least two measures are developed.
If the essay blames smartphones and exam pressure, proposing "build more stadiums" is a non-sequitur. Each measure should respond directly to a cause already identified.