Writing Task 1: Pie Chart & Table: Question 5
Syllabus W.task1
The table below shows the number of adults enrolled in local government-run fitness programmes in the city of Dunmore, by age group, in 2010 and 2025.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
| Age group | 2010 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 18-29 | 1,200 | 2,850 |
| 30-44 | 2,100 | 3,600 |
| 45-59 | 1,800 | 2,400 |
| 60-74 | 900 | 3,100 |
| 75+ | 200 | 950 |
| Total | 6,200 | 12,900 |
Source: Dunmore City Council Fitness Programme Records, 2025.
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Worked solution
Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response
Task Achievement
The overview correctly identifies the single most important pattern in the table (universal growth combined with the fastest proportional increase occurring among older, not middle-aged, groups) a distinction many band 6 responses miss. Every figure from all five age groups and both years is reported accurately, and the total row is used explicitly to support the “more than doubling” claim.
Coherence & Cohesion
The report moves chronologically, establishing the 2010 ranking first before describing how that ranking “had shifted considerably” by 2025, a clear time-linked structure. The third paragraph is organised around a shared idea, proportional rather than absolute change, with each sentence building on that single concept rather than jumping between unrelated observations.
Lexical Resource
Precise proportional language is used accurately and without repetition: “more than a threefold increase”, “nearly quintupled”, “grew more modestly”. This range is considerably more sophisticated than repeating “increased” with different numbers attached.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
Past perfect is used correctly to mark the 2025 state relative to the 2010 baseline (“had climbed”, “had risen”, “had shifted”), and multiplier expressions are grammatically well formed throughout (“more than doubled”, “nearly quintupled”). Numerical figures are punctuated consistently with thousands separators in every instance.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is equating “highest enrolment figures” with “biggest change”. A band 9 response must distinguish which group has the largest number in a given year from which group grew fastest proportionally, since a table of this kind is specifically designed to test that distinction.