Band 8 model answer
A model answer written to illustrate a Band 8 response to this question, with the rubric breakdown and what carries it. Written by us as a teaching example, not a verified exam script.
“The bar chart shows health expenditure per person in five countries in 2019.”8
Overall
8
Task response
8
Coherence & cohesion
8
Lexical resource
8
Grammar
The bar chart illustrates health expenditure per person in US dollars across five countries in 2019.
Overall, the USA spent by far the most on health per capita, while India spent the least. The gap between the highest and lowest spenders was enormous, spanning over ten thousand dollars per person.
The USA's health expenditure stood at 10,921 US dollars per person, more than twice the figure for Germany, which was the second-highest at 5,440 dollars. Japan followed at 4,360 dollars, placing it considerably above the remaining two countries. These three nations all exceeded 4,000 dollars per person, whereas Brazil and India spent a fraction of that amount.
Brazil's per capita health spending was 1,011 dollars, roughly a tenth of the US figure, while India's was just 211 dollars per person, the lowest of the five countries by a wide margin. India's expenditure was approximately 52 times lower than that of the USA and around five times lower than Brazil's. The contrast between the three high-income nations and the two emerging economies is the most striking feature of the chart, with the USA's figure alone accounting for more than double the combined spending of Japan and Germany on a per-person basis.
- •Overview immediately establishes the scale of the USA-India gap, setting up the body paragraphs effectively.
- •Accurate and varied use of ratio comparisons: 'more than twice', 'roughly a tenth', 'approximately 52 times lower'.
- •Logical grouping of countries into high-income and emerging-economy clusters adds analytical clarity.
- •Precise figures for all five countries with no errors.
- •The final sentence's arithmetic ('double the combined spending of Japan and Germany') should be verified precisely against the data before submission.
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