IELTS map Task 1: tenses, compass language, Band 9

The map is the Task 1 figure that punishes a habit rather than a skill. Candidates who handle line graphs well open a pair of maps, start at the top left, and narrate every difference they can spot in the order their eye finds them. The result is accurate, exhausting, and stuck at Band 6, because nothing is grouped and nothing is summarised.

Maps also break the rules the other figures taught you. There are no numbers, so there is no trend and no proportion language. What decides your grammar mark instead is tense, and the tense depends on which of three map variants you were given. This is a guide to all of it: the variants, the compass language, how to organise the body by area, and a Band 9 model with the reasons it scores. It sits under the Writing Task 1 guide and the seven chart types; here we go deep on this one. Looking for the Listening task where you label a map as you listen? That is map and plan labelling, a different test and a different skill.

Three map variants, three tenses

Check the dates under the maps before anything else. They tell you which tense carries the whole report, and tense is where map answers most often lose grammar marks.

Two maps, both in the past (1990 and 2010, say). Everything is finished, so you write in the past simple, mostly passive: the woodland was cleared, a car park was built, the school was converted into flats. This is the most common version.

A past map and the present (1990 and today). The changes run up to now, so the present perfect fits the changes themselves: the harbour has been redeveloped, shops have replaced the warehouses. You can still use past simple for anything clearly finished and dated.

The present and a proposed future (today and "planned developments"). Nothing has happened yet, so you switch to future or modal forms: a bridge will be built, the factory is to be demolished, the site is due to become a park. Writing this variant in the past tense describes changes that have not occurred, which is a content error as much as a grammar one.

There is also the occasional single map with no comparison at all, asking you to describe a place as it is. That one is present simple, and it is a description rather than a change report, so the overview names the layout instead of the transformation.

Because tense is doing so much work here, this is the Task 1 figure where Grammatical Range and Accuracy is most visible. The passive is not decoration either. The forest was cleared is better than they cleared the forest, because no one told you who did it.

The overview: name the transformation, not the details

Write it or accept a Band 5. The Academic Task Achievement descriptor first mentions an overview at Band 6, "a relevant overview is attempted," and Band 5 describes the report without one, "there may be a tendency to focus on details" instead of the bigger picture.

For a map, the overview answers one question: what kind of place did this become? Not which buildings moved. The character of the change. Something like: "Overall, the village was transformed from a small rural settlement into a tourist resort, with most of the farmland along the coast built on and the original road network extended." An examiner reading only that sentence knows what happened to the place. Compare it with "Overall, there were many changes to the map," which names nothing and clears no band.

Useful framings for that sentence: rural to residential, industrial to commercial, undeveloped to built up, or the reverse where green space expands. Then add the direction the development spread, since that is usually the second-biggest feature.

Organise by area, not by change

The Band 8 Task Achievement line is "key features are skilfully selected," and on a map the selection problem is really an organisation problem.

The instinct is to write change by change: the school became flats, then the shop closed, then a road was widened, then trees were planted. That produces a list with no shape. Group spatially instead, and the report organises itself. Two body paragraphs, split by area: north and south, or the coastal strip and the inland part, or the area around the river and everything else. Each paragraph then covers what happened in that zone.

The alternative split, and the one to use when the map has a clear before-and-after character, is by time: paragraph one describes the original layout, paragraph two what replaced it. Either works. What does not work is following your eye around the page, because that is the order the reader has to reconstruct rather than the order that explains the change. This is a coherence and cohesion decision more than a vocabulary one.

Selection matters too. A map with fifteen differences does not want fifteen sentences. Take the structural changes (what the place became, where it grew) and let small details go, or group them: "the smaller shops along the high street were replaced by cafés and gift shops."

Compass and change vocabulary

Two families of language carry a map report, and both sit in Lexical Resource.

Location. in the north, to the south of, on the eastern side, in the north-west corner, along the coastline, adjacent to, next to, opposite, surrounded by, on the outskirts, in the centre. Note the pattern that trips people up. Both phrases take a reference point, and the preposition says whether you are inside it or past its edge: in the north of X is within X, to the north of X is beyond X. A hotel in the north of the town is part of the town; a hotel to the north of the town sits outside it. The reference point is whatever noun follows, not the map frame, so "to the east of the hotel" can still be well inside the map.

Change. was demolished, was knocked down, was replaced by, was converted into, was turned into, gave way to, was relocated, was extended, was widened, was constructed, was erected. For growth and shrinkage: expanded, was extended southwards, spread along the coast, was reduced in size, disappeared, remained unchanged.

That last one earns its keep. Something on a map almost always stays the same, and naming it ("the church in the centre remained unchanged") shows you compared rather than just described.

Task Achievement, band by band

At Band 7, the Academic response "presents a clear overview, the data are appropriately categorised, and main trends or differences are identified": overview present, changes grouped by area or period, the main transformations named. At Band 6, only "a relevant overview is attempted," and the grouping is looser. At Band 5, "there may be a tendency to focus on details" with no bigger picture, which is the change-by-change narration. Between 5 and 7 sit the overview and the grouping. What then separates 7 from 8 is the precision of the location language and the accuracy of the passive forms.

A Band 9 model, and why it works

Take a common prompt: "The maps below show the coastal village of Stanton in 1990 and in 2020."

The two maps illustrate how the coastal village of Stanton changed over a thirty-year period between 1990 and 2020.

Overall, Stanton was transformed from a small farming village into a tourist destination, with almost all of the agricultural land along the shore built on, and new leisure facilities added along the coast and to the east. The settlement expanded in that direction, while its original centre was largely preserved.

The most striking change took place along the coast. In 1990 the shoreline was bordered by farmland and a single track leading to a small pier. By 2020 most of that farmland had been built on: a hotel stood at the western end of the shore, and a row of holiday cottages had been constructed to the east of it. The track was widened into a road and extended along the seafront, and the pier was replaced by a marina.

Inland, the changes were smaller. The church and the surrounding houses in the centre of the village remained unchanged, as did the road running north. To the east, however, the woodland was cleared to make way for a car park and a campsite, which pushed the edge of the village further from its historic core.

Read what the report does. The introduction paraphrases the prompt instead of copying it. The overview names the transformation (farming village to tourist destination) and the direction of growth (eastwards), with no individual buildings mentioned. The body then splits spatially, the coast in one paragraph and inland in the other, rather than following the eye around the page. Location language is precise throughout ("the western end of the shore", "to the east of it", "to the east", "running north"), the passive carries the changes ("had been built on", "was widened", "was replaced by"), and one unchanged feature is named, which shows comparison rather than description. Around 205 words, past forms throughout because both maps are dated in the past.

The mistakes that cap you

Narrating change by change in the order you spot them is the most common, and it is what the "focus on details" line marks down. No overview is the Band 5 trap already covered. The wrong tense for the variant costs twice, once on grammar and once on content, and it happens most with proposed-future maps written in the past. Vague location language ("on the left", "at the top") reads as describing a picture rather than a place; compass points and named features are what the task wants. Listing every small difference without grouping fills the word count and selects nothing. And forgetting to mention what stayed the same leaves the comparison one-sided.

Drill it in five minutes

• The tense-check drill. Take five map prompts and label each variant from the dates alone: both past, past-to-present, or present-to-proposed. Then write the tense you would use. Thirty seconds each, and the grammar half is solved before you write.
• The overview drill. For one pair of maps, write only the transformation sentence: what the place became, and which direction it grew. No individual buildings.
• The compass drill. Describe five features of one map using a different location phrase each time: in the north, to the south of, adjacent to, along, on the outskirts. Rotating these is most of your Lexical Resource mark on this task.

That's the idea behind IELTS Drills. Feedback comes back tagged to a single Band Descriptor, so when a Task 1 report lands at 6.5 you can see whether the half-band went on a missing overview, change-by-change organisation, or the tense, and drill that one in five minutes a day.

Frequently asked questions

What tense do I use for an IELTS map? It depends on the dates. Two past maps take past simple passive; a past map and the present take the present perfect for the changes; a present map and a proposed one take future or modal forms. Check the dates before you write a sentence.

How do I structure a map answer? Four paragraphs: a paraphrased introduction, an overview naming the transformation with no individual buildings, and two body paragraphs split by area (north and south, coast and inland) or by period (before and after).

What vocabulary do I need for maps? Location language (in the north, to the south of, adjacent to, along the coast, on the outskirts) and change verbs in the passive (was demolished, was replaced by, was converted into, was extended). Also keep one phrase for what did not change.

Should I describe every change? No. Take the structural changes and group the small ones. A map with fifteen differences does not want fifteen sentences, and listing them all is what the Band 5 "focus on details" line describes.

What's the difference between "in the north" and "to the north"? Both need a reference point. "In the north of X" is inside X; "to the north of X" is past its edge. The reference point is the noun that follows, not the map itself, so "to the east of the station" can still be within the map. Mixing them up puts buildings in the wrong place, which reads as a data error.

How long should a map answer be? At least 150 words, with roughly 170 to 200 giving you room to cover both areas. Aim for 20 minutes, because Task 2 is worth twice as much.

The bottom line

A map report is decided by two things you settle before writing: which variant you have, which fixes your tense, and how you will split the page, which fixes your paragraphs. Add an overview that names what the place became rather than what moved, use compass language instead of "on the left", carry the changes in the passive, and mention the one feature that stayed the same. For the other figures and how each changes the overview, the chart-types guide has the map, alongside the line graph, bar chart, pie chart, process diagram, table and combination deep dives. With IELTS Drills, the feedback tells you which axis is still costing you the 0.5, five minutes a day.