Academic test only. Describe a chart by its highs, lows and periods instead of walking through every year.
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Six sentences out of order. The time phrases tell you where each belongs.
Put these six sentences into the order a Band 7 Task 1 paragraph would use. The period phrases tell you where each one belongs — you should not need to think about the numbers.
The year-by-year walk is the fastest way to run out of words. Name the landmarks instead.
In 2010 it was 20%. In 2011 it was 23%. In 2012 it was 25%. In 2013 it was 24%…
This is accurate, exhausting, and capped at Band 6. It also eats your 150 words before you have said anything about the shape of the data.
A Band 7 response does something different: it frames the period and names only the landmarks.
From a starting point of 20% in 2010, the figure climbed steadily to peak at 31% in 2016, before declining slightly to 28% by the end of the period.
One sentence. It gives the reader the outset, the peak, the direction, and the endpoint — and silently skips eight years that add nothing.
Every trend line has at most four points worth naming:
at the outset ──▶ peak ──▶ trough ──▶ by the end of
(start) (highest) (lowest) (finish)
Everything between them is shape, and shape is described with the verbs from Sprint 2.1, not with numbers.
Four points earn a mention. The rest is shape, not data.
Four points earn a mention. The other eight are shape, not data.
Eight phrases with the grammar each demands and where it sits in a paragraph.
At the outset, + clause
At the outset, the figure stood at 20%.
Cleaner than "In the first year of the period".
peaked AT 31% · a peak OF 31%
The figure peaked at 31% in 2016.
Watch the prepositions — they differ.
reached a trough of
Output reached a trough of 4% in 2013.
✗ the figure troughed — not a verb.
reach a high OF + number
Sales reached a high of 8 million units.
✗ reached a high with no number.
hit a low OF + number
Attendance hit a low of 12,000 in 2015.
Slightly less formal than "reached a low of".
mid or end of sentence
Germany led throughout the period.
Compresses "in every year" into three words.
needs a prior time reference
Sales fell in 2008. Over the following decade, they recovered.
✗ Cannot open a paragraph — following what?
by the end of the period / 2020
By the end of the period, the gap had closed.
Pairs naturally with past perfect.
Four landmarks, not twelve years. Task 1 asks you to select — a response that mentions everything has selected nothing.
Three choices between naming the shape and walking through every year.
Chain 1
The data: the figure was 20% in 2010, 23% in 2011, 25% in 2012, 28% in 2013 and 31% in 2014.
Candidates: list each year in turn / climbed steadily from 20% to 31%
The expert chooses:
Because:
Chain 2
The writer wants to say that Germany was ahead of every other country in every single year of the survey.
Candidates: repeat "Germany led" for each year / Germany led throughout the period
The expert chooses:
Because:
Chain 3
The sentence opens a body paragraph. No date has been mentioned yet.
Candidates: Over the following decade, sales recovered. / Sales fell sharply in 2008.
The expert chooses:
Because:
Six gaps across a Task 1 paragraph, two of them prepositions that are easy to swap.
International visitor numbers to one city, 2005–2020
Overall, visitor numbers rose across the period, though not without interruption.
, the city received just under 1.2 million international visitors a year.
Numbers climbed steadily decade, supported by new direct flight routes.
Arrivals peaked 3.4 million in 2015 — the highest figure recorded anywhere in the survey.
A sharp reversal followed. Numbers plummeted after 2018 and reached a trough 900,000 in 2020, the lowest point in the entire period.
Despite this collapse, the city remained the region's leading destination the period, never once falling below second place.
the period, however, arrivals stood well below their 2015 high.
Ten years of data, three sentences. What you leave out is the skill being tested.
Here is a full decade of data:
Annual rainfall in one region (mm)
| Year | mm | | Year | mm | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 2011 | 610 | | 2016 | 810 | | 2012 | 640 | | 2017 | 780 | | 2013 | 705 | | 2018 | 640 | | 2014 | 690 | | 2019 | 520 | | 2015 | 720 | | 2020 | 545 |
The test is what you leave out. Ten data points are given; a Band 7 response mentions perhaps four. Naming a year that adds nothing is the error here.
Three sentences. Frame the period; do not walk through it.
Selection is the skill being assessed. Name what you cut.