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 table shows average annual hours worked and statutory paid leave in five countries in 2019.”9
Overall
9
Task response
9
Coherence & cohesion
9
Lexical resource
9
Grammar
The table compares annual hours worked per worker and statutory paid leave entitlement in days for five countries in 2019.
Overall, there was a broadly inverse relationship between hours worked and paid leave: Mexico had both the longest working hours and one of the shortest leave entitlements, while Germany recorded the fewest annual hours alongside a generous leave allocation. The USA was notable for having zero statutory paid leave despite working hours well above the European nations.
Mexico's workers averaged 2,137 hours per year, the highest in the table, and were entitled to only 12 days of statutory leave. The USA ranked second in hours at 1,779, but uniquely offered no statutory paid leave entitlement whatsoever. Japan recorded 1,644 hours annually with 10 days of leave, placing it between the high-hours American and Mexican economies and the lower-hours European ones.
The UK and Germany worked considerably fewer hours per year, at 1,538 and 1,386 respectively, and both offered more generous leave. The UK's statutory entitlement was 28 days, more than double Mexico's, while Germany's workers received 20 days alongside the shortest working year in the table. The gap in annual hours between Mexico and Germany was 751 hours, equivalent to nearly 94 standard eight-hour working days. Taken together, the data show that the countries with the longest working hours were not those offering the most time off, and the pattern was consistent across all five nations.
- •Overview names the inverse pattern directly and highlights the USA as a distinct anomaly, both without figures.
- •Groups Mexico-USA-Japan as the high-hours cluster and UK-Germany as the lower-hours cluster, avoiding row-by-row listing.
- •The 751-hour gap converted to 'nearly 94 working days' is an effective illustrative calculation that stays within the data.
- •Accurate figures throughout with formal comparison language: 'more than double', 'respectively', 'well above'.
- •The conversion of the hour gap into working days is analytical and useful, but could be cut if word count were tight without losing the core argument.
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