Task 1 Academic · Pie chart · Work
Office, hybrid and remote working at one company
Three pie charts in which a dramatic middle year turns out to be the least lasting change — the answers differ in whether they see that the real winner grew only afterwards.
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 pie charts below show the main working arrangements of employees at one company in 2015, 2020 and 2025.
| Working arrangement | 2015 | 2020 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office-based full time | 70 | 18 | 31 |
| Hybrid (part office, part home) | 14 | 16 | 44 |
| Fully remote | 5 | 56 | 14 |
| Site- or field-based | 11 | 10 | 11 |
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
The 2020 chart is the eye-catching one but the least lasting; the 6.5 answer narrates the three years in turn, the 7.5 sees the surge and fall of remote work, and the 9 shows where office work's 39 lost points actually ended up.
The three answers
Band 6.5
167 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 three pie charts show the working arrangement of the employees in one company in 2015, 2020 and 2025.
In 2015, most of the employees worked in the office full time, which was 70 per cent. The hybrid workers were 14 per cent, the site or field workers were 11 per cent and the fully remote workers were only 5 per cent.
In 2020 there was a big change.2 The fully remote workers increased to 56 per cent3 and became the biggest group, and the office workers decreased to 18 per cent. The hybrid was 16 per cent and the site or field workers was 10 per cent4.
In 2025 the hybrid workers increased to 44 per cent and they became the biggest group. The office workers increased again to 31 per cent, the fully remote workers decreased to 14 per cent and the site or field workers were 11 per cent.
Overall, there were many changes in the working arrangements in this period, especially in 2020.1
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“Overall, there were many changes in the working arrangements in this period, especially in 2020.”
An overview that fits any three pie charts. It needed the pattern: office work lost its dominance for good, remote work surged and fell back, and hybrid work became the largest group.
2. Coherence and cohesion
“In 2020 there was a big change.”
The year-by-year plan means hybrid working's 14, 16 and 44 are spread over three paragraphs and never compared.
3. Lexical resource
“The fully remote workers increased to 56 per cent”
The workers did not become a percentage; their share did. The same conflation runs through every sentence of the body.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“the site or field workers was 10 per cent”
A plural subject with a singular verb, in the same paragraph where 'The hybrid' drops the noun it needs.
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.
Compare another question
- Task 1 Academic · Pie chart
Energy use in an older and a newly built house
Two pie charts with very different totals, where a slice that doubles can stand for the same energy — and only the band 9 answer converts shares into kilowatt-hours consistently.
- Task 1 Academic · Pie chart
How household spending changed over thirty years
Two pie charts thirty years apart, where the gains and the losses cancel out exactly — a pattern only one of the three answers notices.
- Task 1 Academic · Pie chart
Where a city's household waste ended up
Two pie charts in which landfill loses its lead to recycling, and in which the quiet growth of incineration is the detail only one answer weighs.