Exercise 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The bar chart shows the scores of teams A, B and C over four different seasons.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Exercise 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The chart shows British Emigration to selected destinations between 2004 and
2007.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make
comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Exercise 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The table illustrates the proportion of monthly household income five European
countries spend on food and drink, housing, clothing and entertainme

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Proportion of household income five European countries spend on food and

drink, housing, clothing and entertainment

Food and
Housing Clothing Entertainment
drink

31% 7% 13%
France 25%

22% 33% 15% 19%

Germany

27% 37% 11% 11%

UK

36% 20% 12% 10%

Turkey

31% 18% 8% 15%

Spain

Exercise 4

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below shows four countries of residence of overseas students in
Australia.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

‘

Exercise 5

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The pie chart shows the amount of money that a children's charity located in the
USA spent and received in one year, 2016.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Exercise No : _____

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Task Achievement - ______ Comments

Coherence and Cohesion - ______ __________________________
Lexical Resource - ______ _________________________
Grammatical Range and Accuracy - ______ _________________________
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Total Band Score ___________ _________________________
IELTS Writing Task 1: how to write the 'overview'

The overview / summary is a very important part of your task 1 report. Many people
have no trouble describing specific details, but they find it difficult to describe the
general features of a graph, chart or diagram. So here are my tips on how to write a
good overview:

1. Always try to write two sentences. This forces you to describe two main or general features
of the graph, chart or diagram.
2. Don't put any numbers in your overview. Save specific numbers for the 'details' paragraphs.
3. If the graph or chart shows a time period (e.g. years), look for the overall change from the
beginning to the end of the period (e.g. from the first year to the last year).
4. Look for overall trends, and ignore individual figures that don't fit the trend. For example, if a
graph shows a rising trend overall, you can ignore a specific year when the figures decreased
- save that year for your 'details' paragraphs.
5. If no time period is shown, you can't look for trends. Instead, look for differences and
similarities between items.
6. Don't look for individual 'highest' or 'lowest' figures such as a 'peak' on a line graph. Instead,
describe the highest and lowest items overall (e.g. which line on the graph was the highest
for the whole or most of the period?).
7. Start your overview with a simple phrase that clearly shows the examiner that this is your
summary paragraph e.g. It is clear that... , It is noticeable that... , Overall we can see that...

Examples

The table below describes percentages of home schooled students in

SomeCountry in 1999-2004. Write a report for a university lecturer describing
the information shown.

You should write at least 150 words.

Overall, all grades including kindergarten has had a rise at rougly
minimum 1 percent or more in 6 years.
Overall it is clear that each age group has a clear favourite which varies
depending on age. However vegetables are consistently amongst the least
popular, regardless of age.

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The bar chart shows the scores of teams A, B and C over four different seasons.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

IELTS Bar Graph - Model Answer

The bar chart shows the scores of three teams, A, B and C, in four consecutive
seasons. It is evident from the chart that team B scored far higher than the other two
teams over the seasons, though their score decreased as a whole over the period.

In 2002, the score of team B far exceeded that of the other two teams, standing at 82
points compared to only 10 for team C and a very low 5 for team A. Over the next
two years, the points for team B decreased quite considerably, dropping by around
half to 43 by 2004.

In contrast, team A’s points had increased by 600% to reach 35 points, nearly equal to
team B. Team C, meanwhile, had managed only a small increase over this time. In the
final year, team B remained ahead of the others as their points increased again to 55,
while team A and C saw their points drop to 8 and 5 respectively.

(Words 164)

ELTS Writing Task 1 - Example 9

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The chart shows British Emigration to selected destinations between 2004 and
2007.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make
comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

IELTS Bar Chart Model Answer

The bar chart shows the number of British people who emigrated to five destinations
over the period 2004 to 2007. It is evident from the chart that throughout the period,
the most popular place to move to was Australia.

Emigration to Australia stood at just over 40,000 people in 2004, which was
approximately 6,000 higher than for Spain, and twice as high as the other three
countries. Apart from a jump to around 52,000 in 2006, it remained around this level
throughout the period.

The next most popular country for Britons to move to was Spain, though its
popularity declined over the time frame to finish at below 30,000 in 2007. Despite this,
the figure was still higher than for the remaining three countries. Approximately
20,000 people emigrated to New Zealand each year, while the USA fluctuated
between 20-25,000 people over the period.

Although the number of visitors to France spiked to nearly 35,000 in 2005, it was the
country that was the least popular to emigrate to at the end of the period, at just under
20,000 people
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The table illustrates the proportion of monthly household income five European
countries spend on food and drink, housing, clothing and entertainme

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Proportion of household income five European countries spend on food and

drink, housing, clothing and entertainment

Food and
Housing Clothing Entertainment
drink

France 25% 31% 7% 13%

Germany 22% 33% 15% 19%

UK 27% 37% 11% 11%

Turkey 36% 20% 12% 10%

Spain 31% 18% 8% 15%

IELTS Tables - Model Answer

The table shows the amount of household income that five countries in Europe spend
per month on four items. Overall, it is evident that all five countries spend the
majority of their income on food and drink and housing, but much less on clothing
and entertainment.
Housing is the largest expenditure item for France, Germany and the UK, with all of
them spending around one third of their income on this, at 30%, 33% and 37%,
respectively. In contrast, they spend around a quarter on food and drink. However,
this pattern is reversed for Turkey and Spain, who spend around a fifth of their
income on housing, but approximately one third on food and drink.

All five countries spend much less on the remaining two items. For clothing, France
and Spain spend the least, at less than 10%, while the other three countries spend
around the same amount, ranging between 11% and 15%. At 19%, Germany spends
the most on entertainment, whereas UK and Turkey spend approximately half this
amount, with France and Spain's spending between those other three nations.

(180 Words)

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below shows four countries of residence of overseas students in

Australia.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

IELTS Sample Line Graph Model Answer

The line graph illustrates the changing trends in the numbers of students, in 1000s,
who visited Australia for education from four different countries between 1982 and
2000. Overall it is evident that visitor numbers from all four countries increased over
the time period.

At the start of the period, while Malaysia had around 5,000 students per year visiting
Australia, the other countries had none. However, though remaining at the highest
number up until 1990 and increasing after this, visitors number from Malaysia
finished at the lowest levels of all the countries, at around 18,000.

The lack of student visitors continued for Hong Kong and Singapore up until 1987. At
that point arrivals from Singapore gradually increased over the years, culminating in
nearly 20,000 visitors per year in 2000, while arrivals from Hong Kong showed a
more erratic pattern, fluctuating after 1996 and finishing at 19,000 per year.

However, the biggest change was seen in numbers coming from Indonesia. Though
this started low, arrivals kept increasing over the years. Numbers peaked in 1998 at
approximately 28,000, before dropping to final arrival numbers of 23,000, which
exceeded all the other countries.

(189 Words)
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The pie chart shows the amount of money that a children's charity located in the
USA spent and received in one year, 2016.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and
make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Revenue Sources and Expenditures of a USA Charity in one year, 2016.

Model Answer

The pie charts show the amount of revenue and expenditures in 2016 for a children’s
charity in the USA. Overall, it can be seen that donated food accounted for the
majority of the income, while program services accounted for the most expenditure.
Total revenue sources just exceeded outgoings.

In detail, donated food provided most of the revenue for the charity, at 86%. Similarly,
with regard to expenditures, one category, program services, accounted for nearly all
of the outgoings, at 95.8%.
The other categories were much smaller. Community contributions, which were the
second largest revenue source, brought in 10.4% of overall income, and this was
followed by program revenue, at 2.2%. Investment income, government grants, and
other income were very small sources of revenue, accounting for only 0.8%
combined.

There were only two other expenditure items, fundraising and management and
general, accounting for 2.6% and 1.6% respectively. The total amount of income was
$53,561,580, which was just enough to cover the expenditures of $53,224,896.

161 Words
 Agree or Disagree Essay

The best structure you can use for this type of essay is:

Paragraph 1- Introduction

Sentence 1- Paraphrase Question

Sentence 2- Thesis Statement

Sentence 3- Outline Statement

Paragraph 2- Supporting Paragraph 1

Sentence 1- Topic Sentence

Sentence 2/3- Explain Topic Sentence

 Sentence 3/4- Example

Paragraph 3- Supporting Paragraph 2

Sentence 1- Topic Sentence

Sentence 2/3- Explain Topic Sentence

Sentence 3/4- Example

Paragraph 4- Conclusion

Sentence 1- Summary and reiteration of your opinion.

Deciding Opinion

In this essay IELTS examiners want you to give a clear opinion, so it’s really
important for you to make a decision when you read the question. You will
also need to do this in order to write an effective thesis statement.

Let’s look at an example:

In some countries an increasing number of people are suffering from

health problems as a result of eating too much fast food. It is therefore
necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on this kind of food.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

With this type of essay we have two choices:

1. We agree with the statement or;

2. We disagree with the statement

Some teachers advise that you can partly agree and disagree but this often
leads to an essay with no clear focus and a confusing structure.

So for this agree or disagree essay you can say either:

1. This essay agrees that governments should tax fast food or;
2. This essay disagrees that governments should tax fast food

I think I will have more ideas for A, so I’m choosing this one. Always choose
the one that you feel comfortable writing about even if you don’t personally
feel that way. There are no points for writing about how you feel, you just
want to impress the examiner.

Idea Generation

Save

Now we have to think of ideas for why governments should tax fast food.

Here are some:

 Cigarettes and alcohol are taxed in the same way

  The money raised could be used to treat people with health problems
 Fast food companies should be punished for selling unhealthy food to
people
 Making the food more expensive would stop people eating it
 The money raised could be used to educate people about healthy
eating

We don’t need to use all of these, just two for our supporting paragraphs. I’
m going to pick the first and the fourth ones because I know a little about
these two and feel confident I can expand on them with explanations and
examples. Remember the examiner wants you to fully support your
arguments, not just list a lot of ideas.

Now we have two supporting ideas we can move on to our introduction.

Introduction

As previously stated, we will use the following structure:

Paragraph 1- Introduction

Sentence 1- Paraphrase Question

Sentence 2- Thesis Statement

Sentence 3- Outline Statement

In order to paraphrase the question we simply restate it with a different
meaning using synonyms. I will also reorder the question. Here is the
question again:

In some countries an increasing number of people are suffering from

health problems as a result of eating too much fast food. It is therefore
necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on this kind of food.

Paraphrased: It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk

food because the number of health risks associated with consuming this
kind of food is on the rise.

This is our first sentence.

We now need to write our thesis statement. This is our opinion in one
sentence. This essay will agree with the above statement and will therefore
look like this:

This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by fast food
companies.

This is our second sentence.

We now need to write our third and final sentence, which is the outline
sentence. This sentence outlines what you will write about in the main body
paragraphs.

Get Expert Advice On Your Agree Or Disagree Essays

Firstly, this essay will discuss the fact that alcohol and tobacco companies
already pay higher taxes and secondly, discuss how higher taxes could
raise prices and lower consumption.

So our full introduction will look like this:

It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk food because
the number of health risks associated with consuming this kind of food is
on the rise. This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by
fast food companies. Firstly, this essay will discuss the fact that alcohol
and tobacco companies already pay higher taxes and secondly, discuss
how higher taxes would raise prices and lower consumption.

3 sentences, 77 words.

We now need to write our supporting paragraphs for our agree or disagree
essay:

Supporting Paragraph 1

This paragraph should include:

1. Topic Sentence
2. Explanation
3. Example

A topic sentence tells the examiner what the rest of the paragraph is about.
In other words, it is a summary of your first idea. It should look something like
this:

Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to be successful at

curbing the harm caused by these substances.

We now need to expand on this point a little. A good way of doing this is to
assume that the examiner has no knowledge of this subject and you have to
explain clearly what you mean. Here is what this could look like:

This revenue has been used to treat health problems associated with
these products and has proven useful in advertising campaigns warning
people about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax from fast
food could be used in the same way.

We should now think of an example to support our point. Think about any
recent news stories, studies or adverts. If you can’t think of one, make one up.
The examiner won’t check if it is real or not.

The United Kingdom is a prime example, where money from smokers is

used to treat lung cancer and heart disease, while at the same time,
pumped into health campaigns in schools to warn children about the
dangers of smoking.

That’s it. Four sentences. The full paragraph should look like this:

Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to be successful at

curbing the harm caused by these substances. This revenue has been
used to treat health problems associated with these products and has
proven useful in advertising campaigns warning people about the
dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax from fast food could be used
in the same way. The United Kingdom is a prime example, where money
from smokers is used to treat lung cancer and heart disease.

Supporting Paragraph 2

We now repeat the same formula with our second supporting point- higher
taxes will increase prices and reduce consumption.

Our topic sentence:

Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption.

Explaining this further:

Fast food companies would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form
of higher prices and this would lead to people not being able to afford
junk food because it is too expensive. Junk food would soon become a
luxury item and it would only be consumed occasionally, which would be
less harmful to the general public’s health.

We now support our point with an example:

For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively expensive
for most people and that is why only a small percentage of the
population buy it regularly.

The full paragraph would look like this:

Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption. Fast food
companies would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form of higher
prices and this would lead to people not being able to afford junk food
because it is too expensive. Junk food would soon become a luxury item
and it would only be consumed occasionally, which would be less harmful
to the general public’s health. For instance, the cost of organic food has
proven prohibitively expensive for most people and that is why only a
small percentage of the population buy it regularly.

Four sentences.

Conclusion
 Save

As stated before a good conclusion for agree or disagree essays should

include:

Sentence 1- Summary of main points

Sentence 2- Your opinion

Don’t write any new ideas in this paragraph.

A good conclusion should just restate your thesis statement and your main supporting
points.

In conclusion, junk food should be taxed at a higher rate because of the good
precedent set by alcohol and tobacco and the fact that the increased cost should
reduce the amount of fast food people buy.

Agree or Disagree Sample Essay

It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk food because the
number of health risks associated with consuming this kind of food is on the rise.
This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by fast food companies.
Firstly, this essay will discuss the fact that alcohol and tobacco companies
already pay higher taxes and secondly, discuss how higher taxes would raise
prices and lower consumption.
Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to be successful at curbing
the harm caused by these substances. This revenue has been used to treat health
problems associated with these products and has proven useful in advertising
campaigns warning people about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax
from fast food could be used in the same way. The United Kingdom is a prime
example, where money from smokers is used to treat lung cancer and heart
disease.

Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption. Fast food companies
would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices and this
would lead to people not being able to afford junk food because it is too
expensive. Junk food would soon become a luxury item and it would only be
consumed occasionally, which would be less harmful to the general public’s
health. For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively expensive
for most people and that is why only a small percentage of the population buy it
regularly.

In conclusion, junk food should be taxed at a higher rate because of the good
precedent set by alcohol and tobacco and the fact that the increased cost should
reduce the amount of fast food people buy.