AcademIELTS Original — Writing Test 3 combines a Task 1 map with a Task 2 causes-and-solutions essay, giving you sixty pressured minutes to demonstrate both report writing and argument writing. Task 1 asks you to summarise the village of Rosedale in 1985 and in 2020. Task 2 then turns to a discursive prompt: In many cities around the world, small independent shops, such as family-run bookshops, bakeries and grocers, are gradually disappearing as large chain stores and supermarkets take their place.
With maps, group changes into structures added, structures removed and structures relocated, then describe each group together. Split the essay along the cause/solution divide: paragraph two explains the root causes (usually two), and paragraph three proposes targeted solutions that map directly onto those causes. If a solution does not address a cause you raised, cut it — coherence depends on this matching.
Hold yourself to a hard twenty-minute Task 1 cap: planning two minutes, drafting fifteen, editing three. Move to Task 2 even if Task 1 feels unfinished, because the causes-and-solutions essay carries double the weight. Reserve the last six minutes for a single read-through across both answers — almost every band-7 candidate fixes at least two grammar slips during that final pass.
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