IELTS Commentry: Academic IELTS Writing Task 1

Wednesday 27 January 2021

Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 – How to Describe Bar Charts

If you didn’t get Band 7 for Academic Writing Task 1, and you blame it on your vocabulary or grammar, think again!

In the 10 years Adam worked as an examiner at the British Council, he saw times and times again that test takers weren’t getting Band 7+ because they were writing their answers the wrong way (and NOT because they lacked vocabulary or didn’t know grammar).

So he made this video to show you the right way to answer the Academic Writing Task 1.

By watching this video, you will

– learn how to describe bar charts in your Academic Writing Task 1
– know how to organise the information in your answer
– save time on Writing Task 1 and use it for Writing Task 2, which carries more weight

Watch the lesson on YouTube, or below:

In the video

1. What are you comparing?
In this particular diagram it is the percentage of New Zealand Smokers, tobacco products, years 2014 to 2018.

2. How are you comparing?
The values are percentages, which means you can use some synonyms of ‘per cent’ (e.g. proportion).

3. When are you comparing?
In the past, so your choice of grammar should be from the past tenses.

4. Which group was the largest? Any overall trends? Drastic changes?
Make sure you mention them.

And this is just the beginning, so do watch the entire video, because insider tips from an IELTS examiner are priceless if you want a higher score.

Adam doesn’t give you a model response in this lesson, because he would like you to have a go and write your own. But if you’d like to see a Band 9 sample, check out our High Scorer’s Choice IELTS practice tests. This particular topic can be found in Package 2 and we also provide a model response for it, as well as all the other writing tasks.

Enjoy the lesson!