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IELTS Map Questions: Describing Change Over Time Without Repeating Yourself
Map questions appear in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1. You are given two pictures of the same place, usually the same town or site at two different dates, and you have twenty minutes and a minimum of 150 words to describe how it changed.
Most answers fail in the same way. The candidate lists the changes in the order their eye finds them, and every sentence uses the same verb. A hotel was built. A car park was built. A road was built. The information is correct and the band is low, because Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range are both being measured, and one repeated passive verb demonstrates neither.
This post gives you the verb bank, the direction language, and a full worked answer.
What the task is actually testing
Task 1 is marked on four criteria: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
For a map question, Task Achievement means you covered the main changes and gave an overview. Coherence means the reader can follow your route through the map. The other two are about the language you used to do it. Notice that none of the four rewards listing every small detail. A complete list with repeated language scores lower than a selective description with varied language.
The overview is not optional
An overview is one or two sentences that state the overall change, without numbers or fine detail. On a map question it usually answers one question: did the place become more developed, less developed, or simply different?
Here are three overview sentences you can adapt.
Overall, the site changed from an area of open farmland into a small residential district, with almost all of the original natural features removed.
Overall, the town became considerably more developed over the fifty year period, although the church and the main road remained unchanged.
Overall, the hospital site was reorganised rather than expanded, since the total built area stayed roughly the same while its layout was completely rearranged.
Write your overview second, after the introduction, not at the end. If you run out of time, the overview is the sentence you cannot afford to lose.
The change verb bank
This is the fix for was built, was built, was built. Group the verbs by the kind of change, and choose from the right group.
| Kind of change | Verbs to use |
|---|---|
| Something new appears | was built, was constructed, was erected, was added, appeared, was introduced |
| Something disappears | was demolished, was removed, was cleared, was knocked down, disappeared, made way for |
| Something changes use | was converted into, was turned into, became, was redeveloped as, now serves as |
| Something grows | was extended, was enlarged, was expanded, doubled in size |
| Something shrinks | was reduced in size, was cut back, was replaced by a smaller |
| Something moves | was relocated to, was moved to the north of |
| Nothing changes | remained unchanged, was retained, was left untouched, still stands |
Two of these are worth more than the rest, because they compress two facts into one sentence.
- made way for: The woodland to the east made way for a supermarket and its car park. This says the woodland went and the supermarket came, in one clause.
- was converted into: The old school was converted into a block of flats. This says the building survived but its use changed, which is a different fact from demolition and rebuilding, and examiners notice the difference.
Direction and position language
The second half of the fix is telling the reader where. Vague location is what makes a map answer hard to follow, and Coherence and Cohesion is where that cost lands.
| Type | Language |
|---|---|
| Compass | in the north, to the south of the river, in the north-eastern corner, along the western edge |
| Relative | opposite the station, next to the school, between the road and the river, surrounding the park |
| Distance | just outside the town, on the far side of, a short distance from |
| Along a line | on both sides of the main road, running from north to south, at the junction of |
Note the two forms that candidates confuse. In the north of the town means inside the town, in its northern part. To the north of the town means outside it, further north. They describe different places, so choose deliberately.
Choosing an order the reader can follow
Do not describe changes in the order you noticed them. Choose one route and hold it. Three orders work.
- By area. North of the river first, then south. Best when the map has a clear dividing feature such as a road, river or railway.
- By type of change. Everything that was removed, then everything that was added. Best when the site was completely cleared and rebuilt.
- By size. The largest change first, then smaller ones. Best when one change dominates the map.
Whichever you choose, say so in your first body sentence, and the reader will follow you without effort.
Tense
Two dates in the past means past simple, usually passive: a car park was built. If one of the maps shows the present day, use present perfect or present simple for that map: the woodland has been replaced by housing. If one map is labelled with a future date, use is expected to or is planned: a second bridge is planned to the east of the existing one.
Mixing these is one of the most common accuracy errors in map answers. Decide your tense before your first sentence, not during it.
A full worked answer
The question. The two maps below show the village of Denton in 1980 and in 2020.
The answer.
The two maps illustrate how the village of Denton developed between 1980 and 2020. Overall, Denton changed from a small agricultural settlement into a residential village, with the farmland to the south replaced by housing and the original road network extended. The church and the river were the only features that remained untouched. In 1980, the village consisted of a single main road running from east to west, with a church at its western end and around a dozen houses on both sides of the road. To the south of these houses lay a large area of farmland, and a river ran along the northern edge of the village, crossed by one small bridge. By 2020, the farmland had made way for two estates of housing, connected to the main road by a new north to south street. The church remained unchanged, but the field opposite it was converted into a car park serving both the church and a new primary school built just to its east. A second bridge was constructed over the river at the eastern end of the village, and the shop that had stood at the junction was demolished to widen the road.
That answer is about 185 words. Count the verbs of change in it: replaced, extended, remained untouched, made way for, converted into, built, constructed, demolished. Eight different verbs, no repetition, and every change is anchored to a position on the map.
A checklist for the exam
- One sentence introducing the maps, in your own words, not copied from the question.
- An overview of the overall change, written second.
- Two body paragraphs, following one clear route.
- At least six different change verbs.
- Every change located with a compass or relative position.
- One tense, chosen before you start.
- At least 150 words. Under that, marks are lost for an incomplete answer.
Do this today
Find any map question online and give yourself twenty minutes. When you finish, underline every verb of change you used. If any verb appears more than twice, replace the extra ones from the table above. Then underline every position phrase. If a change has no position attached to it, add one.
Those two passes address the two criteria where map answers lose most of their marks.
If you want a second view on your Task 1 writing, paste it into Bandly for an estimated band on each of the four criteria with the reasoning behind each estimate. The estimates come from software rather than a human examiner, so use them to find the weak criterion rather than to predict your exam result.
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Paste your own answer and Bandly returns an estimated band for each of the four criteria, with the sentences that pulled the score down. Under a cent an essay, about six seconds.
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