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 the unemployment rate in six countries in 2021.”8
Overall
8.5
Task response
8
Coherence & cohesion
8
Lexical resource
8
Grammar
The bar chart illustrates the unemployment rate as a percentage of the labour force in six countries in 2021.
Overall, South Africa had by far the highest unemployment rate, while Japan recorded the lowest. The chart shows a wide range across the six countries, with a particularly large gap between the top two and the remaining four nations.
South Africa's unemployment rate stood at 33.6% of the labour force, more than twice Spain's figure of 14.8%, which was the second-highest. Brazil came third at 13.2%, meaning that the top three countries all had double-digit unemployment, whereas France, the USA, and Japan did not.
France's rate was 7.9%, followed by the USA at 5.4% and Japan at 2.8%. Japan's figure was approximately 12 times lower than South Africa's and around five times lower than France's, highlighting the considerable variation within the group. The gap between South Africa at 33.6% and Japan at 2.8% amounted to 30.8 percentage points, representing the most striking feature of the chart. Spain and Brazil were broadly comparable despite a difference of 1.6 percentage points, while France, the USA, and Japan all occupied a lower range between roughly 3% and 8%.
- •Overview immediately establishes the extremes and the structural split between high and low groups.
- •Accurate and effective ratio language: 'more than twice', 'approximately 12 times lower', 'around five times lower'.
- •The split between double-digit and single-digit countries is a sharp analytical grouping.
- •Precise gap calculation at the end: 30.8 percentage points between South Africa and Japan.
- •Could compare the USA and France more explicitly since their figures appear similar yet differ by 2.5 percentage points.
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