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 line graph shows the percentage of population living in urban areas in four countries from 1990 to 2020.”8
Overall
8
Task response
8
Coherence & cohesion
8
Lexical resource
8
Grammar
The line graph shows the percentage of the total population living in urban areas in the UK, China, Nigeria and India between 1990 and 2020.
Overall, all four countries became more urbanised over the period. The UK remained the most urbanised throughout, while India was consistently the least urban. China and Nigeria recorded the most substantial increases, with China rising from the lowest group to close to Nigeria's level by 2020.
The UK began at 78.1% in 1990 and increased gradually to 82.9% in 2020, reflecting an already highly urbanised baseline. China, by contrast, started at just 26.2% in 1990 and climbed steeply to 49.2% in 2010, then continued upward to 63.5% in 2020, more than doubling its urban share over 30 years.
Nigeria followed a broadly similar steep trajectory, rising from 35.2% in 1990 to 59.8% in 2020. India grew more slowly, from 25.6% to 34.1%, the smallest absolute increase of the four. By 2020 Nigeria and China were relatively close at 59.8% and 63.5% respectively. China's gain of approximately 37 percentage points was the most striking, compared with Nigeria's 24.6, India's 8.5 and the UK's modest 4.8.
- •Overview correctly identifies the UK's stable lead, India's persistent low level, and China and Nigeria as the steepest movers.
- •The final comparative sentence quantifies absolute gains for all four countries, providing a strong analytical close.
- •China's more-than-doubling is accurately noted and the 2010 intermediate point is used to show the growth curve.
- •Good structural contrast between the slower UK and India group and the faster China and Nigeria group.
- •The 2015 figures for China and Nigeria are not referenced; including one would show whether urbanisation began to slow in the final years.
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