this is our IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 chart for today I've prepared a sample answer
between a Band 8 and 9 and we'll discuss what you should do to increase your score I'll share with
you a great insight from a former IELTS examiner about the most important thing in your Task 1
report and you'll be able to download the sample answer in PDF in the description it's Asiya here
let's get started [Music] here is a task the graph below gives information about the percentage of
the population in four countries living in cities from 1970 to 2020 with predictions for 2030 and
2040 summarized information by selecting and Reporting the main features and make comparisons
where relevant write at least 150 words so what do we have here we see the four named countries
Argentina Brazil Uruguay and Ecuador the vertical axis shows what percent of the population lived
or will live in cities and the horizontal axis the years from 1970 until 2040 2030 and 2040
are in the future feure which means this is a forecast when you have a line chart look for
Trends on our chart we have the past up until this point and the Future Let's have a look
at the past first what happened up until this point the closest point to the present moment
compare the beginning of the period with the end just disregarding any small ups and downs in the
middle each country went up right the share of urban population increased everywhere look at
the beginning the numbers were very different 70% of the population lived in cities in Argentina but
less than 20 in Uruguay and Ecuador but in 2020 the numbers are much closer and by 2040 they will
get even closer they will converge okay let's have a look at the sample answer first of all
the introduction describe what the graph shows to do that we must paraphrase the task description
although some keywords can be repeated here is the introduction the line graph illustrates the
changes in the proportion of City inhabitants in four countries Argentina Brazil Uruguay and
eador over a 50-year period ending in 2020 along with projections for the next two decades so I've
replaced the graph gives information with the line graph illustrates the percentage of the population
in four countries living in cities becomes the proportion of City in habitants in four countries
percentage a key word not to repeat it all the time you can use proportion and share dates from
1970 to 2020 are Rewritten as over 50-year period ending in 2020 and finally predictions can also
be projections or forcasts and instead of with predictions we have a long with projections once
again the actual years mentioned in the task can be rewarded as the following 20 years now it's
time to present the all important overview without an overview you have no chance for
a high band score in task achievement the idea of task one is that we show the examin that we have
understood what the information provided is really all about the overview is simply our understanding
of what the data mean what the pattern or trend is I think it's better to place the overview in
the first paragraph and to start it with a word like overall to clearly indicate that what comes
next is our general interpretation of the data as a whole I say General because here we don't need
to give details like percentages or dates this will come in B paragraphs overall it's clear that
urban populations have grown significantly albe it at different rates in each country
resulting in remarkably similar percentages this sentence shows the similarities remarkably similar
percentages and differences different trates of growth and don't forget to cover the whole
chart the forecast predicts a slower rise in the coming years an interesting Linker here is OB it
this is a formal way to say although or but and add a little bit of extra information this can
help you make any sentence complex for example he finally agreed obit reluctantly to help us
and don't forget to put commas before and after the part you add the part with with ob we also
have a present participle phrase resulting in remarkably similar percentages we could just say
this resulted in remarkably similar percentages and have two sentences both are correct just my
version shows more complex grammar but you should choose the version you are comfortable with there
are a couple of other synonyms in this paragraph to grow growth rise it's really useful to have a
few synonyms ready when it comes to describing change we could also say to increase and some
antonyms are for decline decrease the linkers and specific synonyms are very important for
your ability to describe the data precisely without repeating yourself and my co students
even get a list of words to learn for their task one as for body paragraphs we usually have two
and I was planning to describe all the countries before 2020 in one paragraph and the forecast in
the other but then I split my body into three paragraphs let me show you task one requires us
to describe the data provided ideally we should do this in a logical sequence using appropriate
linking words where necessary how to open it with the L graph the most logical way to start
is usually the beginning of the period 19170 at the beginning of the period the two countries with
the smallest urban populations were Uruguay and Ecuador where around 1th lived in cities
half a century of steady growth meant that by 2020 the proportions had risen to around 95%
in Uruguay making it the most urbanized country on the chart and to just under 70% in Ecuador I
decided to start with the two countries where most change has taken place that is Uruguay and Ecuador
and then go on to Brazil and Argentina where the growth pattern was more stable in the next
paragraph and I'm doing that just to avoid having one gigantic paragraph I'll show you how it would
look later in Brazil where half lived in cities in 1970 in 2020 the number stood at a little
under 90% despite Falling by around 8% during the 1990s now Argentina out of the four nations
Argentina maintained the highest percentage of urban population until it was surpassed by
Ecuador shortly before 2020 at the outset of the period around 70% of Argentinian lived in cities
more than three times the proportion seen in both Uruguay and Ecuador since then growth has
been more gradual eventually topping 90% in 2020 what's important in these paragraphs first of all
similarities we've grouped similar data together at the beginning of the period the two countries
with the smallest urban populations were we've also made some comparisons of the four nations
Argentina maintained the highest percentage of urban population so we've compared Argentina with
other countries we can also make some calculations to compare the countries around 70% of our
argentinians lived in cities more than three times the proportion seen in both Uruguay and Ecuador
if you say Argentina was at 70% and Ecuador at 20% you're assuming that the examiner will draw
conclusions if you say three times higher you make it very obvious which is great another key
element is key features generally we are only selecting the most important numbers but have
a look at this example despite Falling by around 8% during the 1990s we haven't mentioned the 80s
and '90s for any of the countries but Brazil and that's because Brazil is the only country that
had a significant decline in one of the years for other countries it was mainly up and up so this is
a key feature feature I know that sometimes it's hard to decide which features are key so in my
courses students get a cheat sheet with questions that helps them analyze charts and find which
figures are the most important but generally try to find things that stand out in your report try
to vary the ways you describe percentages that's why we have 1/5 for 20% and half for 50% as well
as well over three times to compare 70% with 20% the other percentages are standard Ecuador's 70%
is not under three quarters your aim here is to make your points as clear and easy to follow
as possible and 70% is a lot clearer than under three quarters it's a similar story for dates yes
I'm counting four 2020s in the paragraphs but we also have the phrase at the outset of the period
for 1970 an outset is a really useful word which means beginning later we see since then for 1970
and half a century for the 1970 to 2020 period apart from that notice that shortly before 2020
to indicate roughly when urug guay sasto overtook Argentina another key feature by the way and if
we look carefully at the graph it looks as if it happened around 2017 and we could say that but
shortly before 2020 is a convenient way to express that I also tried in this paragraph to mix the
verb and verb tenses used to describe the changes most time in the past simple tense which is fine
but look at this one by 2020 the proportions had risen the past perfect one of those rare tenses
most English Learners don't know where to use that's a perfect occasion the graph has a cut
off point at 2020 and that's why I used the past perfect to show how something had happened during
that period ending in 2020 and 2020 is in the past however I thought that the present perfect
was better when referring to Argentina since then growth has been more gradual and that's because
since then means from that point in the past until now body paragraph 3 is short only two sentences
it covers the part of the graph that projects into the future over the next 20 years growth
is expected to slow in the countries where cities are currently home to nine out of 10 individuals
Rising by no more than 3% Ecuador however should expect its percentage to reach 80% by 2040
beginning this paragraph with over the next 20 years immediately tells the reader examiner what
this paragraph will be about there are also some synonyms in the task the word used is predictions
I used forecast in the introduction and now we have is expected growth is expected to slow there
is also a simple expression of probability the percentage should reach 80% and another way to
express numbers nine out of every 10 for 90% in the second sentence I've also included a very
clear Linker however it emphasizes the difference between Ecuador and the other countries but pay
attention to your commment we could write however comma Ecuador should expect and we would have one
comma but in the report the word however is in the middle so we need two commas Ecuador comma
however comma should expect and so on you may want to ask why three body paragraphs and not two
we could have two but one of them would be very long especially next to a very short paragraph by
having three body paragraphs I may the answer look more balanced somebody else might do differently
and it doesn't really really matter something else is way more important for your score here is the
inside from a former Arts examiner I promised you so she told me that she would take a very quick
look at the task and the graph and then start reading four or maybe five test answers without
looking back at the graph or the instructions she simply wanted to see if answers made sense
if she could understand them without needing to check with the question material it was her way
of dividing right from the start those task one answers that could and probably would get a band
seven or higher and those that would probably end up with a band six or in some cases a band
five she would then read each answer one by one very carefully and start giving grades when you
think about it your idea captures exactly what task one is all about your ability to
interpret graphic information and put that in writing so that other people can understand it
does it make sense if you'd like to learn how to write answers that make sense and meet all
the band seven criteria at least check out my aot preparation courses so far over 10,000 students
have taken these courses and WR them 4.8 out of five and actually 4.9 for the task one course
so I'm very confident they can help you too and if you'd like a taster then watch this indepth lesson
on how to write an introduction to every type of task one this is a free preview of my course and
don't forget to download the sample answer all the links are in the video description thank you
so much for watching me today today good luck with your preparation and your exam [Music] bye