Task 1 — select, report, and write the overview
Task 1 is a reporting job
- You are given a graph, table, chart, diagram or map, and you describe what it shows.
- You are not asked why it happened, whether it is good, or what should be done.
- A sentence of opinion, an invented cause, or a recommendation caps Task achievement at band 5.
- At least 150 words, about 20 minutes. Then stop and go to Task 2.
In Task 1 you should explain why the trend happened.
No. Task 1 reports what the figure shows. An invented cause is an opinion and caps Task achievement at band 5.
The overview is the sentence that earns the band
- The overview is one or two sentences saying what the data does overall.
- It is not a summary of the introduction and it contains no specific figures.
- Without one, Task achievement cannot exceed band 5.
- Ask yourself: if somebody could read only one sentence, what would they need to know?
- Examples of what an overview names: the biggest movement, the largest category, the point where two lines cross, the thing that did not change.
Which of these belong in a Task 1 overview? Choose all that apply.
An overview names the overall shape — the biggest movement, the largest category, a crossover, or what did not change. It carries no specific figures and no opinion.
A structure that always works
- Sentence 1 — rewrite the question in your own words. Never copy it; copied words are not counted.
- Sentences 2–3 — the overview.
- Paragraph 2 — one group of the data, with figures.
- Paragraph 3 — the other group, with figures.
- That is four paragraphs and about 180 words, which is comfortably over the minimum.
Put a Task 1 answer in order.
The overview comes second, immediately after the rewritten introduction — not at the end, where a reader who stops early never sees it.
Group, do not narrate
- ⚠ The commonest band-5 Task 1 walks through every line, year by year, in the order they appear.
- Group instead: what rose and what fell; or the two large categories and the three small ones; or before the crossover and after it.
- Quote enough figures to support each statement, not every number on the chart.
- A pie chart shows shares, not amounts. A larger share went on housing is right; households spent more on housing is wrong unless you also know the total.
A pie chart shows housing rising from 26% to 38% of household income. Which sentence is safe?
A pie chart shows shares only. Without the total income you cannot say the amount rose, and you certainly cannot say why.
Processes and maps are different
- A process diagram needs no data at all. Say how many stages there are and whether it is a loop or a straight line, then run through it in the passive: the bottles are collected, not people collect the bottles.
- A map pair needs prepositions of place and both tenses: the farmland to the north has been replaced by a housing estate.
- In both, say in the overview what did not change. It is a key feature and most answers miss it.
Rewrite in the passive: 'People collect the bottles.' → 'The bottles ___ collected.'
A process description uses the passive throughout, because the agent is not the point — the stage is.