Model answer
Academic Task 1 model answer 28: How schoolchildren get to school
A high band model answer to a real Academic Task 1 question, with the task it answers. 20 minutes, at least 150 words.
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The task
The Academic Task 1 question
Write your own answer before reading the model.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The chart shows ways that schoolchildren get to school in three different countries.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
The answer
The Academic Task 1 model answer
Written at the length the test actually asks for.
The chart presents information about how pupils in three different countries travel to school, separated into 6 different categories.
For the United States and the United Kingdom, the majority of students travel by car to school, with figures of 40% and 39% respectively. In Australia, only a quarter of students use this mode of transport.
The school bus is the most common method of getting to school in Australia; in the USA the number is only slightly behind those travelling by car. Less than a quarter use the school bus in the UK. Almost four times as many Australian students walked to school compared to the USA, with the UK being closer to Australia at 15%.
The remaining three categories showed only slight differences between the countries, with public transport being followed by cycling, and finally a category marked as 'other', which represents only about one twentieth of the total in each country.
In sum, there are differences between the countries, but the school bus and cars represent the most common ways for students to travel to school.
178 words
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