Task 1 Academic · Map · Education
A college campus now and as planned
A present-day campus and the plan for its future, where the weakest answer lists new buildings and the strongest sees that the whole site is being turned round.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The maps below show the campus of Ashgrove College at present and the changes that are planned for it.
- Both maps show the Ashgrove College campus, with the main entrance on Mill Lane in the middle of the southern edge and a campus road running north from the entrance along the western side of the site.
- NOW: the main teaching building stands in the centre of the campus.
- PLANNED: the main teaching building is unchanged.
- NOW: a small library stands immediately west of the main teaching building.
- PLANNED: the library will be extended westwards to twice its present size.
- NOW: a surface car park with 400 spaces covers the whole north-west of the campus.
- PLANNED: the car park will be cut to 120 spaces in a narrow strip along the western edge; the rest of the north-west will hold three new student accommodation blocks arranged around a central garden.
- NOW: a sports field occupies the north-east of the campus.
- PLANNED: the sports field remains, and a new sports hall will be built on its southern end.
- NOW: two student accommodation blocks stand in the south-east, just inside the main entrance.
- PLANNED: the two south-east accommodation blocks will be demolished and replaced by a new science building.
- NOW: a refectory stands in the south-west corner, beside the main entrance.
- PLANNED: the refectory is unchanged.
- PLANNED: a new cycle path will run from the main entrance north through the middle of the campus to the new accommodation blocks, and a bus stop will be added at the main entrance. Neither exists now.
A 150-word factual summary of a graph, chart, table, process or map. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
Housing and parking swap ends of the campus; the 6.5 answer lists the new buildings, the 7.5 sees the move away from cars, and the band 9 sees that teaching moves to the entrance while students move to the back.
The three answers
Band 6.5
194 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
The maps show the Ashgrove College campus now and in the future.
At present, there is a big car park in the north-west and there is a sports field in the north-east. In the centre there is the main teaching building and there is a small library next to it on the west.4 There are two accommodation blocks in the south-east near to the entrance, and a refectory is in the south-west corner.
In the future, the car park will be more small3 and it will only have 120 spaces along the west side. In the rest of the area there will be three new accommodation blocks with a garden. The library will be extend to the west and it will be two times bigger. The two accommodation blocks in the south-east will demolish2 and a new science building will be built there.
Also, there will be a sports hall on the sports field and a cycle path from the entrance to the new blocks, and a bus stop at the entrance. The main building and the refectory will not change.
Overall, the campus will have more buildings and less parking in the future.1
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“Overall, the campus will have more buildings and less parking in the future.”
True, but it describes the totals rather than the plan. The finding is where things move: housing from the entrance to the north-west, teaching into the space it leaves.
2. Grammatical range and accuracy
“The two accommodation blocks in the south-east will demolish”
An active verb where only a passive makes sense: the blocks will be demolished. The writer manages the passive in the next clause, so this is a gap under pressure rather than an unknown form.
3. Grammatical range and accuracy
“the car park will be more small”
A one-syllable adjective forced into the 'more' pattern. 'Smaller' is the form, and 'reduced' would be the better verb.
4. Lexical resource
“In the centre there is the main teaching building and there is a small library next to it on the west.”
Two uses of 'there is' in one sentence, and a location phrase ('next to it on the west') where 'immediately west of' is the precise expression.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
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