IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 asks for 150 words describing a graph or chart in twenty minutes. The two things that decide the mark are whether you write a real overview and whether your trend language is accurate. This page drills both, with forty original questions on trend verbs, comparison, tense and data selection.
Check the units, the time span and whether the axis starts at zero. Note the highest and lowest points before you write anything.
That is your introduction. Change the nouns and the verb, keep the units and the dates.
Two sentences on the biggest movements and the overall relationship between the lines. No figures belong here.
Put lines that behave alike in one paragraph and the exception in the other. Describing each line in turn produces a list, not a description.
Three or four numbers per body paragraph, chosen for the start, the peak and the end. Every figure needs its unit.
A chart ending in a past year is past simple throughout; a projection uses is expected to or will.
Rose by ten per cent, rose to forty per cent, rose from ten to forty per cent. These are marked as grammar, not vocabulary.
Learn roughly how many lines of your handwriting make 160 words so that you never count during the exam.
Look for missing plurals, missing units, and a missing overview: those three errors cost more than any sentence you could add.
Not thisThe number of visitors increased of 20%.
ThisThe number of visitors increased by 20%.
An amount of change takes 'by'; a destination figure takes 'to'.
Not thisWriting an introduction and three body paragraphs with no overview.
ThisAdding two sentences summarising the main features.
The overview is the single highest-value paragraph in Task 1, and answers without one cannot reach the higher bands for task achievement.
Not thisThe graph shows that people should travel less by car.
ThisCar journeys fell steadily over the period.
Task 1 asks for description, not explanation or recommendation. Reasons and opinions earn nothing.
Not thisListing every value on the chart in turn.
ThisSelecting the highest, the lowest and the turning points.
The instruction says to select and report the main features, so completeness is not the goal.
Not thisThere was a raise in sales.
ThisThere was a rise in sales.
Raise is a transitive verb; the noun for an upward movement is a rise or an increase.
Not thisSales increased dramatically from 2010 until 2011 by a small amount.
ThisSales rose slightly between 2010 and 2011.
The adverb must match the size of the movement, and dramatic movements are rarely small.
Not thisUsing the present simple for a graph covering 1990 to 2015.
ThisUsing the past simple throughout.
A finished period takes past tense; mixing tenses inside a description is a visible grammar error.
Not thisWriting 210 words to be safe.
ThisWriting about 160 to 180 words.
Task 1 is worth a third of the writing mark; time spent past 180 words is taken from Task 2, which is worth twice as much.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
1Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
6Complete the sentence.
7Write an overview sentence for a graph where car use rises steadily from 1990 to 2020 while bus use falls throughout.
One good answer
Overall, car use grew consistently across the period while bus use declined, so the gap between the two modes of transport widened considerably by the end.
9Complete the sentence.
11Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
17Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
24Why does a Task 1 answer without an overview lose marks even when the detail is accurate?
One good answer
Because task achievement is assessed on whether you have selected and reported the main features, and an answer that goes straight into figures never states what the chart shows overall, so a whole criterion is only partly met.
26Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
34Write two sentences of body paragraph for this data: imports 20 in 2000, 45 in 2010, 44 in 2020.
One good answer
Imports more than doubled during the first decade, climbing from 20 million units in 2000 to 45 million in 2010. After that the figure levelled off, ending the period at 44 million, almost exactly where it had been ten years earlier.
36Complete the sentence.
38Complete the sentence.
40List the four paragraphs of a Task 1 answer and say what goes in each.
One good answer
An introduction paraphrasing the chart title; an overview of two sentences giving the main features with no figures; a body paragraph on the first group of data with selected figures; and a second body paragraph on the remaining group or the exception.
Note
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It does not have to, but it should. Putting it straight after the introduction guarantees it gets written, and an overview buried at the end is easy to run out of time for.
No. The overview states the main features — what rose, what fell, which was highest overall. Figures belong in the body paragraphs where they support specific claims.
Six to eight across the whole answer is usually enough. Each one should do a job: mark a start, a peak, a crossing point or an end.
Then the main feature is the absence of one. Say that the figure fluctuated within a narrow band, give the range, and move on to whatever comparison the chart does support.
Yes. An under-length answer is penalised directly, and there is no way to recover the mark. Aim for 160 to 180 so that a miscount never puts you below the line.
No. Task 1 is assessed as continuous writing, and notes or bullets cannot demonstrate the cohesion and grammar the criteria ask for.