Academic Task 1
The question candidates prepare for least and panic about most. With a worked example and a practice exercise.
An IELTS map task gives you two or three maps of the same place at different times and asks you to describe how it changed. Nothing is measured, so there are no figures to quote and no trends to follow.
It is the least prepared-for question in Academic Task 1, which is precisely why it is worth an hour of your time. The language it needs is narrow, learnable and almost identical every time it appears.
The task
Six points, and the language list is short.
Somebody made these changes and the map does not say who, so the passive fits: the woodland was cleared, a car park was built, the school was extended.
In the north-west, to the south of, on the far side of, adjacent to, surrounded by, running from east to west. Nearly every sentence needs one of these.
Was demolished, was replaced by, was converted into, was relocated to, was extended, remained unchanged. Ten verbs cover almost every map the test has used.
Not a list of buildings. Say what the place became: rural to residential, industrial to commercial, open to built-up. One sentence, and it carries a lot of the mark.
Something almost always does, usually a road or a river. Naming it is a significant feature and most candidates leave it out.
If the maps show a proposed future development, the tense changes: use will be built or is due to be replaced. Check the dates in the question before you write.
Worked example
The changes below are what a typical pair of maps would show. The model covers the introduction and overview.
| Feature | 1985 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| North of the main road | Farmland | Housing estate |
| Village centre | Shops and a post office | Shops and a supermarket |
| South-east corner | Woodland | Primary school and car park |
| River | Runs east to west | Unchanged, with a new footbridge |
| Railway station | None | Built beside the main road |
Introduction. The two maps show how the village of Bexley changed between 1985 and 2020.
Overview. Over the thirty-five year period the village developed from a largely agricultural settlement into a residential one, with almost all of the open land built on. The river was the only major feature to remain unchanged, although a footbridge was added across it.
Body paragraph. The most substantial change took place to the north of the main road, where the farmland was cleared and replaced by a large housing estate. In the south-east, the woodland was removed to make way for a primary school and an adjoining car park, while a railway station was built beside the main road to serve the new residents.
The overview says what the place became rather than listing what was built. Everything in the body paragraph is a past passive tied to a location.
Method
Six things that decide whether this task reaches Band 7.
Two minutes finding every difference is time well spent, because the answer is a list of differences and missing one costs you a significant feature.
North of the road in one paragraph, south of it in the other. Jumping around the map is confusing to read and costs marks under Coherence.
Demolished, replaced, converted, relocated, extended, cleared, constructed, added, expanded, remained. That list is almost the whole vocabulary requirement.
A change with no location is half a sentence. A car park was built tells the reader nothing until you say where.
Present simple only if the maps show the present, and future forms only if one map is a proposal.
Why the village grew is not shown. Report what changed, and leave the reasons alone.
Practice
Six questions on the language this task needs. Choose the best option.
Every option below is grammatically possible. The question is which one an examiner would read as accurate and appropriately selective.
That judgement is what Task Achievement and Lexical Resource are measuring in this task.
1Correct the error: In 2020 a supermarket built in the village centre.
Was built. Somebody built it, and the map does not say who, so the past passive is required. The active version says the supermarket did the building.
2Which is the better overview sentence?
The second. An overview describes the change in character. The first is a list of details, the third is an opinion the maps cannot support, and the fourth is the introduction.
3Which sentence locates the change most precisely?
The third. It names the location, the previous use and the new use in one sentence. The fourth is informal and uses they, which the maps do not identify.
4One map is labelled proposed development. What tense should you use for it?
A future form. A proposal has not happened. Writing about it in the past is a factual error, and the dates in the question are what tell you which situation you have.
5Which is the most useful thing to say about the river?
The second. What stays the same is a significant feature and most candidates omit it. The last option is speculation the maps do not support.
6Correct the error: The old post office was replaced with a supermarket in the centre.
Was replaced by. The standard collocation is replaced by. Replaced with is heard, but by is the form expected in formal writing and it is what examiners are used to reading.
That is the harder half of this task, and it is invisible from inside your own answer. An answer can be accurate in every sentence and still score Band 6 because it described everything instead of choosing what mattered.
The complete IELTS course on IELTStestONLINE has video lessons on every question type, many more exercises like this one, and your own support tutor you can ask when an answer does not make sense. Take a look at the complete course
Choosing the better sentence from four is not the same as producing one under time with a chart in front of you.
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Less common than graphs and charts, which is exactly why it is worth preparing. Candidates who meet one unprepared usually lose marks they did not need to.
Past passive when both maps are in the past, present simple if one shows the present, and a future form if one is a proposal.
How the character of the place changed overall, such as rural to residential, and anything major that stayed the same.
No. Group the changes by area and name the significant ones. Small details can be left out.
By area of the map rather than by type of building, so the reader can follow the description across the page.
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Task Achievement rewards choosing the significant features and reporting them accurately. Nobody can judge their own selection, because the things you left out are exactly the things you did not notice.
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