Part 1: Compulsory essay

• Train students to read the questions carefully, to underline the most important parts, and then to plan an answer which addresses and develops all the points required by the task.

• The Mock test toolkit has all the information you need to run a timed practice test.

Part 1: Compulsory task

Key task information

• Candidates have to write an essay of between 220 and 260 words on a topic which is to be written about as a follow-up to an academic activity, such as attending a panel discussion or watching a documentary. • A set of notes on the topic is provided, consisting of three bullet points plus three short opinions related to the bullet points. • There is no choice of tasks in this part. • The main purpose of the task is to write about relevant issues on the stated topic, and to support an argument with subsidiary points and reasons.

• Encourage students to read the question carefully and underline key instructions. Emphasise that they should only select two of the bullet points on which to base their essay. Attempting to discuss more than two bullet points could lead to the essay being less developed than required. • Candidates can use the opinions provided to develop their essay. However, no credit is given for language which is copied directly from the question. Give students practice in rewriting the opinions in their own words.

• Practise techniques for organising writing: using paragraphs to guide the reader, including an introduction and conclusion, linking words and phrases (e.g., but, so, however, on the other hand, etc.) and cohesive devices (e.g., using pronouns for referencing and synonyms to avoid repetition).