How a week is spent, and where we work
A Task 1 data table and a Task 2 ‘outweigh’ opinion essay, written, self-assessed, and shown beside the Band 7.5+ models, with the moves that earn the marks.
How to use this. Write both tasks in the boxes below, Task 1 in twenty minutes, Task 2 in forty, as in the real test. When you have finished, open Self-assessment to mark your own work against the four criteria, then compare it with the Band 7.5+ models and the notes on exactly what lifts a response up a band. You can download a copy of everything to keep. For a person to mark your writing against the criteria, the first lesson includes one marked Task 2.
Describe the table.
Recommended 20 minutes · at least 150 words
The table below shows the average number of hours per week that adults in four countries spent on six different categories of activity in 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
| Activity | UK | Japan | Germany | Brazil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid work | 36 | 42 | 35 | 39 |
| Sleep | 56 | 51 | 56 | 54 |
| Leisure & socialising | 26 | 19 | 28 | 25 |
| Household chores | 14 | 15 | 13 | 17 |
| Childcare & care duties | 8 | 7 | 8 | 11 |
| Other (commuting, eating, personal care) | 28 | 34 | 28 | 22 |
| Total | 168 | 168 | 168 | 168 |
Write the essay.
Recommended 40 minutes · at least 250 words · carries twice the marks
In recent years, an increasing number of employees in many countries have begun working from home for at least part of the working week, rather than commuting to a traditional office every day. Employers and workers alike are still adjusting to this shift, and there is considerable debate over whether it represents genuine progress or whether its costs have been understated.
Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Mark your own work.
Be honest with yourself against the four criteria, the same four an examiner uses. Then read the model answers and the notes on exactly what moves a response up a band.
Task Response
Coherence & Cohesion
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The Band 7.5+ models, and what earns the marks
What the task wants. A table of twenty-four figures. The mark is not in reporting all of them but in finding the patterns that run across the rows and columns: which country stands out, where the figures cluster, where they diverge. A Band 5 reads the table out cell by cell; a Band 7.5 selects the headline contrasts and uses the numbers as evidence. Since every column totals 168, the interest is in how each country *divides* the week.
The target · Band 7.5+ · modelThe table compares how adults in the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and Brazil divided an average week across six activities in 2022, each column adding up to the 168 hours available. Overall, the most striking contrast is Japan, whose adults worked the longest hours and rested and relaxed the least, while the four countries were broadly similar in the time given to chores and care. Japanese adults spent the most time on paid work, at 42 hours, several hours more than their British (36) and German (35) counterparts, and correspondingly recorded the lowest figures for both sleep (51 hours) and leisure (just 19 hours). British and German respondents were almost identical at the restful end of the scale, each sleeping 56 hours and devoting around 26 to 28 hours to leisure. Brazilian adults stood out elsewhere, spending the most on household chores and care duties combined, at 28 hours, and the least on the residual “other” category, at 22 hours. Time spent on childcare and care was the most uniform row, ranging only from 7 to 11 hours.
Why it scores. A genuine overview that names the headline (Japan works most, rests least), not a restatement of the title; selection and grouping (the restful end, the residual category, the most uniform row) rather than a march through every cell; comparison built in (more than, identical, the most, the least); and figures used as evidence for a point, with controlled comparison language that never just repeats spent.
Where weaker responses lose marks. Listing all twenty-four figures with no overview, so the reader has to find the pattern; describing one country fully then the next, with no comparison; missing the columns-total-168 logic; and figure slips, more higher than, the most longest, spent in 42 hours, that quietly cap accuracy.
What the task wants. An outweigh question is not the same as “discuss both sides”: it demands a verdict. You must decide whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and defend that line throughout, stated in the introduction and reaffirmed in the conclusion. Acknowledging the other side strengthens the essay, but a balanced piece that never commits is penalised under Task Response. The cleanest structure leads with the side you favour and gives the opposing side a fair but subordinate hearing.
The target · Band 7.5+ · model paragraphsIntroduction, with a clear verdict. The shift towards working from home, accelerated in recent years, has divided opinion sharply. While remote work undeniably brings complications, I would argue that, for most office-based roles, its advantages clearly outweigh its drawbacks.
The case in favour (the heavier side). The strongest argument concerns time and wellbeing. Eliminating the daily commute hands workers several hours back each week and removes a significant source of stress and expense, which most people reinvest in family, rest or exercise. Flexibility also widens the workforce, allowing parents, carers and those with disabilities to take roles that rigid office hours would once have closed off. Many firms, for their part, report that focused remote work raises rather than lowers productivity, while cutting their office overheads.
The opposing side, fairly but briefly. The disadvantages are real and should not be dismissed. Spontaneous collaboration suffers when colleagues are not in the same room, junior staff lose the informal mentoring that comes from sitting beside experienced ones, and the line between work and home can blur until people struggle to switch off. These costs, however, are largely answerable through deliberate management, scheduled in-person days, clear hours, and proper investment in tools, rather than being inherent reasons to abandon the model.
Conclusion. In conclusion, although working from home carries genuine costs to collaboration and to the boundary between work and life, these are manageable, whereas its gains in time, wellbeing and inclusion are substantial. On balance, then, the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages, and a hybrid arrangement that keeps the best of both seems to me the sensible settlement.
Why it scores. A verdict taken in the introduction and held to the end, so the essay argues a line rather than weighing two equal piles; the favoured side given the greater weight, with the counter-side fairly but briefly handled; each point developed with a reason (commute time reinvested; flexibility widens the workforce); and precise topic lexis (remote work, overheads, mentoring, hybrid) used naturally.
Where weaker responses lose marks. Treating an outweigh prompt as a neutral “both sides” essay and never committing; giving each side equal length so no verdict emerges; reversing the stated position by the conclusion; and the recurring Task 2 ceiling, comma splices joining two full sentences with only a comma, which holds an otherwise strong essay at 6.5 on accuracy.
These are model answers I wrote for this paper, shown with the criterion marks they would earn and the reasons. The first lesson includes one of your own Task 2s, marked the same way against the four criteria and returned annotated, line by line.
Take your work with you.
Download your two answers alongside the target models, so you can revise them later or bring them to a lesson.
Next, online: Paper 07, two charts and a causes-and-effects essay · or back to Paper 05 · Paper 04 · Paper 01.
Send a task. Get it back marked.
A paper tells you the question. It can’t tell you why your answer sits at 6.5.
Write your response to the Task 2 above and send it to me. I’ll mark it in detail against the four assessment criteria and return it to you annotated, line by line, so you can see exactly where the band is sitting and what is holding it down. Written work is handled this way around the lessons, sent over and returned marked between sessions, which keeps the fifty minutes themselves free for speaking. The first lesson is a full assessment. Regular lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English.