IGCSE Summary Writing: Model Answers, Format & Exam Tips

In Cambridge IGCSE First Language English (0500), the summary task sits inside Paper 1 Question 1: you read a short non-fiction text and write your own continuous-prose summary of no more than 120 words, selecting only the details the question asks for. It is worth 15 of Question 1's 30 marks — 10 for choosing and understanding the right material, 5 for writing it clearly in your own words — and the mark scheme rewards precise selection as much as accuracy of content.

This guide walks through exactly what the task asks for, works through a full source passage and model summary so you can see the standard in practice, and lists the specific habits that cost marks. It is scoped to the 0500 syllabus current for 2024, 2025 and 2026 — check your own syllabus if you are on a different board.

What the summary task actually asks for

Cambridge's Question 1 has two parts on two different texts. The first responds to Text A: a comprehension task testing understanding of explicit and implicit meaning (15 marks). The second — the summary task — responds to Text B: a "selective summary task in your own words," written as continuous writing of no more than 120 words. The syllabus splits those 15 marks as 10 for the reading skill of selecting and understanding relevant material, and 5 for the writing skill of organising it clearly and expressing it in a range of appropriate vocabulary and sentence structures.

Two words in that description do almost all the work: "selective" and "own words". The question sets a specific focus — for example, the causes of something, or the arguments for and against it — and only material relevant to that focus earns marks. Material outside the focus, however well written, earns nothing and costs you words you needed for what does count. "Own words" means exactly that: reusing the writer's phrases wholesale, rather than expressing the same idea differently, does not demonstrate that you have understood and selected the material — it demonstrates that you can copy.

A step-by-step method for planning a summary

1. Read the question focus first, before you read the text in detail, so you know what you are looking for.
2. Read the text once for overall sense, then a second time, underlining or noting only the points that match the focus.
3. Cross out anything irrelevant to the focus, however interesting — descriptive scene-setting, the writer's personal opinion, an anecdote used only to illustrate a point already covered elsewhere.
4. Turn your underlined points into your own phrasing, on a rough note, before you start the continuous-prose answer.
5. Write the summary as connected prose — sentences and linking words, not a bullet list of points strung together.
6. Count your words (roughly, by counting lines and words-per-line) as you approach the end, so you finish inside the 120-word limit rather than being cut off mid-point.

A worked model: source passage and summary

Question focus: "According to the writer, what are the benefits and the challenges of growing food inside cities?" (A real Cambridge Text B runs to 700–750 words; the passage below is a shorter, original extract written to demonstrate the task, not a full-length replica.)

Source passage

I still remember the first time I walked into a vertical farm: rows of lettuce stacked ten shelves high under pink LED light, inside a warehouse that used to make car parts. It felt more like a laboratory than a field, and for a moment I wondered whether this was really the future of food or just an expensive gimmick.

The case for growing food inside cities is, on paper, a strong one. Transporting vegetables from farm to supermarket can account for a significant share of a meal's total carbon footprint; a vertical farm built inside the city it feeds cuts that journey to a few miles, sometimes a few streets. Because growing conditions are entirely controlled — light, temperature and water all managed by computer — crops can be harvested year-round regardless of season or weather, and a single warehouse can produce many times more per square metre than an open field, since the shelves stack upward rather than spreading outward.

The challenges are just as real. Running thousands of LED lights and climate-control systems uses a great deal of electricity, and unless that electricity comes from renewable sources, some of the carbon saved on transport is cancelled out by higher energy use. The upfront cost of building a vertical farm is also far higher than renting an equivalent field, which has so far limited the crops grown this way mostly to high-value leafy greens and herbs rather than the wheat, rice or potatoes that make up most of what people actually eat.

Whether vertical farming becomes a genuine part of how cities feed themselves, or stays a niche supplying restaurants and premium supermarkets, will depend on whether the energy problem can be solved before the cost problem outlasts investors' patience.

Model summary (120 words)

Growing food inside cities shortens the distance between farm and consumer, lowering the carbon emissions normally created by transporting produce, and because conditions such as light, temperature and water are fully controlled, crops can be harvested throughout the year regardless of the weather. Stacking growing space vertically also allows far greater yields from a small area than an outdoor field. However, running the lighting and climate-control equipment consumes large amounts of electricity, which can offset the transport savings unless renewable power is used, and building such farms costs more than farming an equivalent area of land. As a result, this method currently suits only high-value crops such as leafy greens and herbs, not staple foods like wheat, rice or potatoes.

Why this scores well: the opening paragraph (the writer's personal memory of visiting a farm) is dropped entirely — vivid as it is, it is not a benefit or a challenge, so including it would waste words on the 120-word limit for zero marks. Every sentence in the model summary maps to a specific point in the source (transport distance, year-round growing, yield per area, energy use, upfront cost, crop limitations) rather than adding commentary or opinion of its own. Phrasing is reworked rather than copied — "cuts that journey to a few miles" becomes "shortens the distance", "produce many times more per square metre" becomes "far greater yields from a small area" — which is what "in your own words" is actually testing. And it is written as connected prose, with linking words ("However", "As a result") doing the job a list of bullet points would not get credit for.

Common mistakes that cost marks

• Copying phrases or whole sentences from the source rather than expressing the same idea in different words — this does not demonstrate understanding, so it earns little or no credit even when the content selected is correct.
• Going over the 120-word limit: material beyond the limit is not creditable, so a longer answer does not earn more marks, it just risks the last, rushed sentence being weaker than the rest.
• Including opinion, comment or explanation the question did not ask for — a summary reports what the text says, it does not evaluate or agree with it.
• Writing a list of disconnected points instead of continuous prose — the 5 writing marks specifically reward organisation and sentence structure, which a bullet list does not demonstrate.
• Summarising material outside the question's stated focus — an accurate but off-focus point earns nothing and has used up words needed elsewhere.
• Repeating the same point twice in different words, which happens easily when working from underlined notes rather than a clear plan.

Summary writing is a skill that improves fastest with feedback on where your own draft strayed from the question focus or slipped into the source's own wording — which is exactly the kind of line-by-line marking a TutorWick English tutor gives on practice summaries, against the same assessment objectives Cambridge examiners use.

Does the summary need its own introduction or conclusion?

No. Cambridge asks for continuous-prose summary of the selected material within 120 words — there is no mark for a separate introductory or concluding sentence, and adding one only uses up words better spent on content.

Will I lose marks for going under 120 words?

There is no separate penalty for a shorter answer, but a summary well under the limit usually means relevant material has been missed, which costs marks on selection rather than for length itself. Aim to use close to the full 120 words on genuinely relevant content.