Bandly
Sample essays

IELTS Task 1 process diagram band 7 sample answer, broken down

A 179-word process diagram answer scored 7 on all four criteria, with the diagram written out in text so you can compare your own attempt line by line.

The Bandly team9 min read

A process diagram gives you nothing to compare, so the overview that earns marks is built from the number of stages, the starting point, the end point, and whether the process loops back on itself. Below is a complete IELTS process diagram band 7 sample answer — 179 words — with the diagram written out in text, followed by a criterion-by-criterion account of why it sits at 7 and not 6 or 8.

Two things to be clear about before you read on. The diagram and the answer were both written for this article: the process is a plausible simplification, not a description of any real mill, and the answer is my own writing. No official IELTS sample answer exists for this task at this band, and none is being presented here.

Why your chart habits stop working on a process diagram

Most candidates meet Task 1 through line graphs, bar charts and tables. The training that follows is almost entirely numerical: find the highest value, find the lowest, group the categories that move together, quantify the change, and build an overview out of the two or three biggest movements. That method transfers cleanly between chart types, which is why it feels like a general Task 1 skill.

Then a process diagram appears and every step of that method has nothing to attach to. There is no peak. There is no largest category. Nothing rises or falls. Candidates who have only ever practised charts sit there looking for a number to lead with, find none, and write an opening paragraph that just restates the title and then dives straight into stage one. That missing overview is the single most common reason a process answer stalls at band 5 or 6, and it is a Task Achievement problem, not a language problem — see Task Achievement vs Task Response for why Task 1 is marked on the first of those and Task 2 on the second.

What replaces the numbers is structural. A process has a fixed number of stages, an input at one end, an output at the other, and a shape — linear, cyclical, or branching. Those four facts are the content of your overview. If you can state them in two sentences, you have done what the chart writer does with peaks and troughs.

The diagram this article uses

Imagine a flow diagram of recycled paper production with seven labelled boxes and arrows running left to right, plus one arrow returning from the final box to the first. Written out, the stages are:

Stage What the diagram shows
1. Collection Used paper gathered from household and office bins
2. Sorting Sorted by grade at a depot; contaminated paper discarded
3. Pulping Shredded and mixed with warm water and chemicals in a tank
4. De-inking Pulp passed through a flotation cell; ink lifted off as foam
5. Screening Forced through fine screens; staples, plastic and glue removed to landfill
6. Pressing and drying Sprayed onto a moving mesh, pressed by rollers, dried on heated cylinders
7. Reeling and delivery Wound onto reels, cut and delivered to shops

The return arrow from stage 7 to stage 1 makes this a cyclical process: paper sold in shops is used and then re-enters collection. Stage 5 also has a branch leaving the cycle, since the material removed by the screens goes to landfill rather than forward. A candidate who notices the loop and the branch has more to say in the overview than a candidate who reads the diagram as a straight line.

An IELTS process diagram band 7 sample answer

The diagram shows how used paper is recycled into new paper. Overall, the process has seven stages, beginning with the collection of used paper and ending with distribution to shops. It is a cyclical process, because paper that has been bought is returned to the collection stage and used again.

First, used paper is collected from homes and offices and taken to a depot, where it is sorted into grades by hand and any dirty paper is thrown away. The sorted paper then goes into a large tank, in which it is shredded and mixed with warm water and chemicals until it becomes pulp.

After this, the pulp is moved to a flotation cell. Here, ink rises to the surface as foam and is removed. The cleaned pulp is then pushed through fine screens, which take out staples, plastic and glue; this waste material is sent to landfill.

In the final stages, the pulp is sprayed onto a moving mesh, pressed by rollers and dried on heated cylinders, before the paper is wound onto reels and delivered to shops.

That is 179 words. The instruction on the task is to write at least 150 words, and it is a floor, not a target: an answer under it is penalised for length before anything else is assessed, while an answer well over it simply costs you minutes you needed for Task 2. Something in the 170–190 range covers seven stages without padding.

How the four criteria land on this answer

Task 1 is marked on Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Each criterion is described below in my own words rather than quoted from the published descriptors. Criterion scores are whole numbers only; the half bands you see on a result slip come from averaging, never from a single criterion.

Criterion Band Reason
Task Achievement 7 All seven stages appear, and the overview states the stage count, the start, the end and the cyclical shape — but the last three stages are compressed into one sentence and the landfill branch is mentioned without being placed in the flow.
Coherence and Cohesion 7 The four paragraphs map onto real divisions in the process rather than arbitrary breaks, and stages are ordered without the reader ever losing the thread; the sequencers themselves are plain and repetitive.
Lexical Resource 7 Process-specific items are used accurately — pulp, flotation cell, screens, wound onto reels — but "dirty paper is thrown away" is imprecise where "contaminated paper is discarded" was available.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy 7 Sentences are error-free and structures vary, including relative clauses ("in which it is shredded", "which take out staples"), though most of the complexity comes from that one pattern.

The arithmetic is straightforward: 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 = 28, and 28 ÷ 4 = 7.0. Remember that Task 1 is the lighter half of the paper. Your reported Writing band is (Task 1 + Task 2 × 2) ÷ 3, rounded — so a 7 here paired with a 6 on Task 2 gives (7 + 12) ÷ 3 = 6.33, which reports as 6.5. If you want the criteria themselves unpacked at greater length, IELTS Writing band descriptors explained does that, and the official task instructions are on ielts.org.

Four things candidates get backwards on process tasks

The passive is common, not compulsory. Process diagrams describe what is done to a material by an unnamed agent, so the passive is often the natural choice, and roughly two thirds of the sample above uses it. But look at "the sorted paper then goes into a large tank" and "ink rises to the surface as foam". Those stages happen rather than being done, and forcing them into the passive would produce clumsier English, not better-scored English. A whole answer in the passive reads mechanically and gives the Grammatical Range examiner nothing to reward. Mix by meaning, not by rule.

The process decides the tense, not the task type. An ongoing, general process — how paper is recycled, how cement is made — takes the present simple, because it is describing what happens every time. A process that is finished and historical, such as how a particular monument was built, takes the past. Nothing about "Task 1" as a category sets the tense; the diagram does. Which tense for IELTS Task 1 works through the cases where the choice is genuinely ambiguous.

Covering every stage is not the same as giving every stage equal space. Task Achievement asks you not to leave stages out. It does not ask for seven sentences of identical length. Pressing, drying and reeling are three boxes on the diagram but one continuous operation in reality, and the sample above handles them in a single sentence without penalty. What costs marks is silence about a stage, not brevity about one. The corollary: if you find yourself writing three sentences about stage one because it is easy, you are spending words you will need at stage six.

The overview is a claim about the whole, not a summary of the first stage. Writing "Overall, used paper is collected from bins and offices" is not an overview; it is stage one with a discourse marker in front. The test is whether your sentence could only have been written after reading the entire diagram. "Seven stages", "cyclical", "ends with distribution" all pass that test.

Before your next practice attempt

Take any process diagram and, before writing a word, note four things on the question paper: how many stages, what goes in, what comes out, and whether an arrow returns to an earlier box. Those notes are your overview paragraph, and you can draft it in two sentences. Then group the stages into three or four clusters and give each cluster a body paragraph — that grouping decision is where most of your Coherence and Cohesion mark is won.

If your other Task 1 practice has been chart-based, it is worth reading a scored answer from each family back to back, because the overview logic looks so different across them: IELTS Task 1 Academic band 7 sample: bar chart shows the same band achieved through comparison rather than sequence. The underlying demand is identical — tell the reader what the whole thing shows before you tell them the details — but the raw material you build it from changes completely.

FAQ

What belongs in the overview when there are no numbers?

Four structural facts: the number of stages, the input, the output, and the shape — linear, cyclical or branching. Two sentences is enough for all four.

Must a process answer be written in the passive?

No. The passive fits stages that are done to a material, and the sample uses it for about two thirds of its sentences. Stages that simply happen read better in the active, and a fully passive answer shows a narrower grammatical range.

Present or past tense?

The diagram decides. A general, repeating process takes the present simple; a finished historical process takes the past. There is no tense rule attached to "Task 1".

Do I need one sentence per stage?

No. Leaving a stage out costs marks; covering three related boxes in one sentence does not. Group stages that form a single operation.

Is this criterion called Task Achievement or Task Response?

Task Achievement for Task 1, Task Response for Task 2. They ask for different things, which is why the names are not interchangeable.

Official task instructions are on ielts.org.

Frequently asked questions

What goes in the overview of a process diagram answer?
Four structural facts, because there are no numbers to compare: how many stages there are, what goes in, what comes out, and what shape the process has — linear, cyclical or branching. Those four facts are the content of your overview, and they do the job that peaks and troughs do on a chart.
Do process diagrams have to be written in the passive?
No. The passive is common because a process describes what is done to a material by an unnamed agent, and roughly two thirds of the sample below uses it. But stages that happen rather than being done — "ink rises to the surface", "the paper goes into a tank" — read more naturally in the active, and an answer written entirely in the passive gives the grammar criterion nothing to reward.
Which tense should I use for a process diagram?
The diagram decides, not the task type. An ongoing, general process takes the present simple, because it describes what happens every time. A finished, historical process — how a particular structure was built — takes the past. Nothing about Task 1 as a category sets the tense.
Does every stage need the same amount of space?
No. Task Achievement asks you not to leave stages out; it does not ask for one sentence per box. Three boxes that form a single continuous operation can share one sentence without penalty. What costs marks is silence about a stage, not brevity about one.
Is Task 1 marked on Task Achievement or Task Response?
Task Achievement. Task Response is the Task 2 criterion, and the two ask for different things. The other three criteria — Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy — are shared across both tasks.

Find out where your own writing sits

Bandly grades your essay or letter against all four criteria and shows the gap to your target band, sentence by sentence.

Check your essayBand score calculator

Keep reading

All articles