What Paper 1 Is Testing
Paper 1 asks you to produce a piece of writing in a specific text type, for a specific audience, on a topic connected to one of the five prescribed themes. The examiner is not just checking whether your English sounds fluent. They are checking whether you can make the right choices before you write a single sentence.
Three things determine your marks:
- Language (Criterion A): vocabulary range and accuracy, grammatical control, fluency.
- Message (Criterion B): whether your content addresses all parts of the task.
- Text type (Criterion C): whether your writing looks, sounds, and functions like the type you chose.
A response with polished English but the wrong conventions, or a response that covers the theme but ignores the audience, will not score well. All three criteria work together.
The five prescribed themes are: Identities, Experiences, Human Ingenuity, Social Organization, and Sharing the Planet.
Your writing should connect visibly to whichever theme the task touches on. The clearest way to do this is to name it or signal it early in your response.