Band 9 model answer
A model answer written to illustrate a Band 9 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 line graph shows mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people in four countries from 2000 to 2020.”9
Overall
9
Task response
9
Coherence & cohesion
8.5
Lexical resource
9
Grammar
The line graph shows mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people in the USA, China, Nigeria and India between 2000 and 2020.
Overall, all four countries saw dramatic growth, though from very different starting points. China recorded the most remarkable increase, eventually overtaking the USA to finish highest, while Nigeria and India also rose sharply from near-zero bases.
In 2000 the USA led with 38.9 subscriptions per 100 people, followed at a distance by China at 6.7. Nigeria and India had virtually no mobile penetration at that point, recording 0 and 0.3 respectively. The USA grew steadily, crossing 100 by 2015 and reaching 103.9 in 2020. China, however, expanded far more rapidly: from 30 per 100 in 2005 it climbed to 63.6 in 2010 and surged to 120.5 by 2020, surpassing the USA sometime before 2020, and ending as the highest of the four.
Nigeria and India followed broadly similar steep upward paths. Nigeria grew from nothing in 2000 to 52.4 in 2010 and 95.4 in 2020, while India reached 60.5 in 2010 and 82.3 in 2020, remaining the lowest of the four. The crossover between China and the USA is the most striking individual feature of the graph.
- •Overview correctly identifies China's crossover of the USA as the defining feature, supported accurately in the body.
- •Start and end values for all four series are accurate, including the near-zero 2000 figures for Nigeria and India.
- •Effective grouping in the third paragraph compares Nigeria and India to avoid repetition.
- •Varied trend language: 'dramatic growth', 'virtually no penetration', 'surged', 'closed the gap considerably'.
- •The 2015 value for China could be mentioned to better show the acceleration in the final five years.
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