Short answer: reported GT Task 1 letters for this window are the usual five jobs — complain, apply, request, apologise, invite — wrapped in everyday situations: a lost item at a cinema, volunteering at a museum, documents left at a friend's house, a charity event advertisement, a restaurant meal.
The situation is decoration. The job, the tone, and covering all three bullets are what get marked.
How this forecast is made — and what it is not
The same method and the same limits as our other forecasts: this is aggregated public candidate recall, not leaked exam content, self-selected and varying by market.
GT Task 1 recall is unusually reliable, though, for one structural reason — a letter task is short and memorable, so candidates reproduce it accurately, and the situations repeat heavily across months and countries.
Reported letter situations for September–December 2026
| Reported situation | The job | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| You think you left something at a cinema — write to the manager | Report a loss and request action | Semi-formal |
| A museum near you wants volunteers — apply for the unpaid work | Application | Formal |
| You left an important file of documents at a friend's house | Request a favour | Informal |
| A newspaper advertisement asks for charity-event volunteers | Application | Formal |
| You celebrated your birthday at a restaurant — write to them | Thank or complain, depending on the prompt | Semi-formal |
Read down the "job" column and the pattern is obvious: three of the five are some version of ask someone to do something.
That is the GT Task 1 core skill, and it is almost entirely a matter of tone control.
Tone is the mark most candidates lose
Every GT letter is formal, semi-formal or informal, and the prompt always tells you which — through who you are writing to and whether you are given a name.
Get it wrong and you lose marks under Task Achievement even if the content is complete.
| Tone | Written to | Opens / closes |
|---|---|---|
| Formal | A stranger in an official role, no name given | Dear Sir or Madam … Yours faithfully |
| Semi-formal | Someone named but not a friend — a manager, a landlord, a neighbour | Dear Mr Alvarez … Yours sincerely |
| Informal | A friend or family member | Dear Sam … Best wishes / All the best |
The commonest failure is a hybrid: a formal opening followed by contractions and chatty asides, or an informal letter that suddenly produces "I am writing to express my dissatisfaction".
Pick the register from the prompt in the first thirty seconds and hold it to the sign-off.
The three bullets are the marking scheme
Every GT Task 1 prompt gives you three bullet points, and they are not suggestions — they are what Task Achievement is assessed against.
Cover all three, in the order given, with roughly a paragraph each, and add a specific detail to each one.
A letter that covers two bullets thoroughly and skips the third is capped below one that covers all three adequately, which is the single cheapest mark on the whole paper.
Two habits follow. Write at least 150 words — under-length is a straight penalty, and 20 words short costs more than a few grammar slips.
And be concrete: "the item is a navy wool coat with a torn left pocket" is worth more than "the item is a coat", because Task Achievement rewards a reader who could actually act on your letter.
How to prepare in the time you have
Write one letter of each tone — one formal application, one semi-formal complaint, one informal request — and get each marked before you write a fourth.
Three marked letters teach more than ten unmarked ones, because the errors in GT Task 1 are systematic: the same tone slip and the same thin third bullet appear every time until someone points them out.
Our AI Writing Checker grades GT Task 1 against the official criteria, and the Task 1 guide covers the structure for each letter type.
Then do not neglect Task 2, which carries twice the weight of Task 1 in your Writing band.
The essay half of the paper is the same for General Training as it is for Academic in structure and marking, so our Task 2 forecast for this window applies to you too.
Candidates routinely over-prepare the letter because it feels manageable and under-prepare the essay that is worth more.
When this page changes
Refreshed through the window as reports accumulate, replaced at the turn of the year.
Letter situations recur across years more than Task 2 themes do, so this list will age well — the tone rules and the bullet rule will not change at all.