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Cambridge IELTS 12 Academic Writing Test 3 combines a Task 1 chart with a Task 2 discussion essay, giving you sixty pressured minutes to demonstrate both report writing and argument writing. Task 1 asks you to summarise how frequently people in the USA ate in fast food restaurants between 2003 and 2013. Task 2 then turns to a discursive prompt: In a number of countries, some people think it is necessary to spend large sums of money on constructing new railway lines for very fast trains between cities.
Group the data into two or three clear bands rather than reading each segment in turn — examiners reward grouping over listing. Pick two contrasting figures for the body and leave smaller detail for a closing comparative sentence. Use two body paragraphs, one per view, then a balanced concluding paragraph that explains why both perspectives have merit.
Twenty minutes on Task 1 means committing to your groupings within the first five — do not change your structure halfway through. Task 2 needs forty disciplined minutes: ten to plan and outline, twenty-six to write, four to edit. On a discussion essay, the conclusion is the only place the examiner reads your final position with full attention, so write it last and write it deliberately.
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