What Part 1 actually asks for
Part 1 is compulsory — every candidate writes the essay, and there is no choice of task. You are given a short input: a situation (your class has attended a panel discussion, a lecture, a debate), a question, and three points that came up. Underneath sit two or three short opinions voiced by people in the discussion.
The instruction is the part candidates skim, and it is where the marks are decided. It asks you to write about two of the three points, and to explain which of the two is the more important, giving reasons. An essay that covers all three points has not followed the task. An essay that covers two beautifully and never ranks them has not either.
The opinions in the input are there to be engaged with, not copied. Lifting a phrase wholesale is visible to an examiner and costs you on Language, because language you did not produce cannot be credited. Paraphrase them, or disagree with them.
220–260 words, and why the range is not arbitrary
The range is guidance for hitting the criteria, not a rule scored on its own — but drifting outside it is a reliable symptom of a problem. Come in well under 220 and you have almost certainly not developed both points and justified a ranking; there is not room. Run well over 260 and relevance starts to suffer, because the extra words are usually a third point you were not asked to discuss.
A useful way to think about the budget: roughly 40 words of introduction, 80 for each of the two points, and 50 for a conclusion that does the ranking. That leaves very little slack, which is exactly why planning beats writing fast.
- under 220 · ideas left undeveloped — the Content scale drops first
- 220–260 · the band Cambridge sets for the task
- over 260 · time you needed for checking, spent on words that earn nothing extra
Planning: choose two, then rank them
Spend the first five minutes on paper, not on the answer. Three decisions, in this order:
- Which two points? Not the two you find most interesting — the two you can support with a concrete reason each. Interest is invisible to the examiner; development is not.
- Which of the two wins? Decide now. The whole essay leans towards this, and a conclusion that arrives at a ranking you had not planned reads as an afterthought.
- On what grounds? This is the sentence most essays are missing. “More important” needs a criterion — more people affected, longer-lasting, harder to reverse, cheaper to fix. Name it.
The structure examiners are reading for
| Paragraph | Job | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | Reframe the question in your own words and signal the two points you will weigh | 40 words |
| Body 1 | First point: claim, reason, brief example or consequence | 80 words |
| Body 2 | Second point, handled the same way — plus the one-clause nod to the third | 80 words |
| Conclusion | State which point matters more and on what criterion | 50 words |
Four paragraphs, and the comparison lives in the fourth. A common alternative — weighing the two against each other continuously throughout — can work, but it is much harder to control inside 260 words and it frequently costs Organisation marks. Keep the argument in separate paragraphs and the judgement at the end.
The C1 language toolkit — what raises Language from 3 to 5
This is where a C1 essay parts company with a good B2 one. At B2 you are rewarded for range and accuracy. At C1 the descriptor asks for a wide range used with flexibility and precision, and three structures do most of that work in a discursive essay.
C
Content
Did you do everything the task asked?
CA
Communicative Achievement
The right register and effect for the reader
O
Organisation
Paragraphs, linking, a logical shape
L
Language
Range and accuracy of vocabulary and grammar
Nominalisation
Turning verbs and adjectives into nouns compresses an argument and raises the register, which is precisely what an essay needs when the word budget is tight. “Because governments do not regulate this properly” becomes “The absence of proper regulation”. Same claim, fewer words, visibly more formal.
Cleft sentences
A cleft puts the emphasis where you want it, and in this task it is almost purpose-built for the ranking sentence. “What ultimately matters is not the cost but the precedent it sets.” “It is the long-term effect that makes this the more pressing concern.” One of these in the conclusion is worth more than a paragraph of ordinary sentences.
Hedging
C1 argument is not louder than B2 argument — it is more careful. “This would arguably do more harm”, “the evidence tends to suggest”, “in most circumstances”. Hedging signals that you know a claim has limits, and unqualified certainty reads as less sophisticated at this level, not more confident.
Discourse markers matter too, but reach past the obvious ones. “Moreover” and “however” are fine and invisible; “admittedly”, “that said”, “by the same token” do more for you because they carry an argumentative relationship, not just a join.
A skeleton, not a model
Memorised essays are audible, and examiners read thousands. What transfers between tasks is the shape, so learn this rather than any particular wording:
- Intro: restate the issue in your own words → name the two areas you will weigh.
- Body 1: claim → reason → consequence or example.
- Body 2: claim → reason → consequence → one clause acknowledging the third area.
- Conclusion: cleft sentence naming the winner → the criterion that makes it the winner.
Pitfalls specific to C1
- Covering all three points. The single commonest content failure, and it usually comes from reading the input and not the instruction.
- Comparing without a criterion. “I think the first is more important” is an opinion; it becomes an argument only when you say what makes something important.
- Register drift. A formal opening that slides into contractions and conversational asides by paragraph three. Consistency is assessed under Communicative Achievement, and drift is more visible at C1 because the surrounding language is more formal.
- Borrowed phrasing. Reusing the input’s opinions verbatim. It cannot be credited as your language, and it is obvious.
- Ornament over precision. Reaching for an idiom that does not quite fit costs more than the plain word would have. At C1, precision is the impressive thing.
Practising it
Essays improve on feedback, not on volume. An unmarked essay tells you nothing about which of the four criteria pulled your band down, and content — not language — is where most C1 candidates actually lose marks. Write one, get it marked against the criteria, fix the one thing that came back weakest, then write another.
You can do that here: C1 Advanced essay practice marks your answer against Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language with sentence-level comments and an indicative band.
Part 1 is only half the paper. For Part 2, see how to write a proposal — a task type that does not exist at B2 First — and report, review and formal letter. The common C1 writing mistakes are worth reading before your next attempt, and the C1 Advanced exam preparation guide covers how Writing fits against the other three papers.