Two tasks, eighty minutes: forty minutes each, and that includes five minutes of planning and five of checking. Write the answer first, then mark your own against the four criteria the examiner actually uses. The model appears only after you have checked — reading it first is the one way to waste this paper.
You must answer this question. Write your essay in 140–190 words in an appropriate style. Forty minutes, including planning.
In your English class you have been talking about who museums are for. Now your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.
Write an essay using all the notes and giving reasons for your point of view.
Your answer 0 words
Mark your own against the real criteria:
174 words. Read it as a shape, not a script — the shape is what transfers to the next essay you write.
It is often argued that entry to national museums should cost nothing, and in Britain most of the large ones are indeed free. I believe this policy is worth its price.
The obvious objection is financial. Free entry has to be paid for out of taxes, and a museum in a small town may struggle while London institutions are protected. However, the sums involved are modest compared with other public spending, and free museums earn a good deal back through shops, cafés and donations.
The stronger argument concerns who comes through the door. If a family has to pay twenty pounds before they have seen anything, they will simply not risk it, and the visitors will be the people who were always going to come. Free entry allows someone to walk in for twenty minutes, which is how most people begin.
My own reason is different. A collection that belongs to the public should not be sold back to it.
Museums are not a luxury, and charging would quietly change who they are for.
What the examiner is seeing: the objection is stated fairly before it is answered (paragraph 2); the third idea is one sentence long and unmistakably new (paragraph 4); and the conclusion adds no argument — it closes the one from paragraph 1.
The plan.
Every content point must appear.
An opening you can borrow. “It is often argued that … , and in Britain … . I believe … .” — that is two sentences: the situation, then your position. If you cannot finish the second one, you have not decided your opinion yet, and the essay will wander. Decide it before you write.
Write an answer to one of the questions 2–4 in 140–190 words in an appropriate style. Put the question number at the top of your answer. Forty minutes.
Your answer 0 words
Mark your own against the real criteria:
A model for Question 4 — the report, 155 words — because a report is the one of the three you cannot invent the shape of. Openings for the other two follow it.
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to compare the two day trips under consideration and to recommend one for a group of students who have been in Britain for three weeks.
The British Museum
Entry is free and the building is reachable in under two hours. The collection is enormous, which is both its strength and its weakness: without a plan, a group of twenty will scatter and see very little. A booked forty-minute tour would solve this.
Oxford
Oxford costs more and takes longer to reach, but it is a small city and the whole group can walk it together. Several colleges charge for entry, so the day would need a fixed budget.
Recommendation
I would recommend Oxford. Students at this stage have already seen central London, and a day in which they walk, order lunch and speak to guides themselves is worth more to them than a large collection they cannot finish.
If you chose Question 2, the article should open like this: “Everybody arrives expecting the rain. Nobody warns you about the queue. In three weeks here I have stood in more orderly lines than in my whole life, and I have finally worked out why.” — a hook, a reader addressed directly, and the subject named by sentence three.
If you chose Question 3, the review should open like this: “Britain, Arguably is a half-hour podcast in which two journalists disagree, politely and at length, about one British institution a week. It sounds unpromising. It is the best hour of English I get.” — what it is, then a judgement, inside three sentences. Save the “who it is not for” for the last paragraph; it is the sentence most candidates forget.
The plan.
Every content point must appear.
An opening you can borrow. Article: “Everybody arrives expecting … . Nobody warns you about … .” · Review: “X is a … in which … . It sounds … . It is … .” · Report: “The purpose of this report is to compare … and to recommend … .” Learn those three openings and you have removed the worst two minutes of the exam.
Writing is not marked by a page. What the page can tell you is whether you covered every content point, whether you hit the length, and whether you can honestly tick four criteria. Those three things are where most B2 marks are lost.
If a criterion would not tick, that is the thing to practise this week — one criterion, one week. Rewriting the same task twice with the plan in front of you teaches more than writing two new ones.