Task 1 Academic · Table · Education
International enrolment across five subject areas
A table of enrolment figures in which one subject supplies over half the total growth and another is the only one falling — the answers differ entirely in whether they spot that.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The table below shows the number of international students enrolled in five subject areas at universities in one country in 2015, 2020 and 2025.
| Subject area | 2015 | 2020 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business and management | 118 | 142 | 165 |
| Engineering | 74 | 88 | 96 |
| Computer science | 46 | 71 | 128 |
| Health and medicine | 39 | 52 | 61 |
| Arts and humanities | 63 | 55 | 41 |
A 150-word factual summary of a graph, chart, table, process or map. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
Fifteen numbers, one story: computer science produced more than half of all the growth while arts and humanities fell. The 6.5 answer reports the fifteen numbers and never arrives at the story.
The three answers
Band 6.5
170 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
The table gives information about the number of the international students4 who enrolled in five different subject areas in the years 2015, 2020 and 2025.
In 2015, the business and management had the highest number of students with 118 thousand. The engineering was the second with 74 thousand, then the arts and humanities with 63 thousand3, the computer science with 46 thousand and the health and medicine with 39 thousand.
In 2020 all the subjects increased except the arts and humanities, which decreased from 63 to 55 thousand. The business and management increased to 142 thousand, the engineering to 88 thousand, the computer science to 71 thousand and the health and medicine to 52 thousand. In 2025 the same thing happened again and the arts and humanities decreased to 41 thousand, but the computer science increased a lot to 128 thousand.1
Overall, most of the subjects increased in this period2, but the arts and humanities decreased. The business and management was always the most popular subject for the international students.
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“In 2025 the same thing happened again and the arts and humanities decreased to 41 thousand, but the computer science increased a lot to 128 thousand.”
The single most important movement in the table is disposed of in half a sentence, and 'a lot' is the only measurement offered for a rise of 57,000 in five years.
2. Task achievement
“Overall, most of the subjects increased in this period”
True but empty. An overview should say what the table adds up to — total growth, where it came from, what changed rank — not count how many arrows point upwards.
3. Lexical resource
“The engineering was the second with 74 thousand, then the arts and humanities with 63 thousand”
Rank is expressed by ordinal number and the word 'then', with no use of 'followed by', 'ranked third' or 'a further'. The listing reads as a transcription because lexically that is what it is.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“the number of the international students”
A definite article inserted before a general plural noun. The same pattern recurs before every subject name in the answer.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
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