hi there it's asiya and in this video i'd like to share with you my top tips for ielts
academic writing task 1 which i hope will help you write better answers and achieve a higher score
before we begin i just wanted to check if you've seen my new step-by-step ielts writing tutorial
where you can write your task 1 and task 2 answers together with me in this class i'll teach you the
fundamentals of ielts writing and show you how to write high scoring answers step by step all the
details are in the video description and now let's get started my first tip is avoid providing too
many details in your report to explain what i mean let me show you a task here it is
the charts below show the average consumption of three nutrients by adults in the uk
all these nutrients may be unhealthy if eaten too much and then we see three pie charts sodium
saturated fat and added sugar on each chart we can see what proportion of this nutrient
people consume with each meal breakfast lunch dinner snacks for example sodium
people eat 13 of sodium with breakfast 28 with lunch 42 with dinner and so on
so what i'm doing now is i'm providing every detail i'm describing every number doing that
in your report is wrong it will limit your score the task is to summarize the information
so let me give you an example to illustrate my point this is a bad example
a typical breakfast contains 13 of the daily intake of sodium 16 of saturated fat and 16 of
added sugar what i did here is i described every number i could find on those childs
this is a bad idea what you should do instead is find the key trends differences or stages
when you look at your data you need to analyze them and explain what they mean what stands behind
the data so if we continue talking about our breakfast a much better example would be this
a typical breakfast is the lightest meal of the day which contains between 13 and 16
of each nutrient so here i used the same data but i analyzed them i explained what they mean
the breakfast is the lightest meal of the day and then i supported my description with figures
which contains between 13 and 16 of each nutrient so i provided just enough detail
to support my statement but not more and here is my next tip support your description with
figures just like in our previous example there is a statement and then some figures to support it
here is another example out of all the meals dinner contains the largest proportions of sodium
and saturated fat 42 and 39 of daily intake respectively again i'm not just saying dinner
contains 42 of sodium because that means nothing i say that it contains the highest proportion
which is much more meaningful and then i support my statement with the exact number and the word
respectively means that numbers come in the same order as things were mentioned so 42 is sodium
and 39 and saturated fat it's a really useful word for task one okay the next tip is describe
data correctly it's very easy to make a simple mistake of reporting the wrong number but you
lose marks for that so be careful next write an overview i know the task doesn't say that you
must write an overview but you must an overview is a very short summary of the main
things you've learned from the task you just need to write one or two sentences without any details
without any numbers so here is the overview for this task overall the first two meals of the day
eaten by adults in the uk are relatively balanced and healthy whereas dinner contains the most
sodium and saturated fat most of the added sugar is in snack foods
you see even without seeing those charts we can already say what this task was about
so this is the overview and by the way foods it's not a mistake when you talk about different
kinds of food you can say foods and if you'd like to see the full sample answer for this task
i will link the video in the description use the correct tense that's my next tip it's very
easy to report the information in the wrong tense because you have so many things to think
about but that's a significant mistake so pay attention to that let's have a look at some tasks
so in the task with pie charts we don't have any dates so everything is in the present and we use
mainly the present simple tense breakfast contains people eat and so on now this one a bar chart
here we have three time periods 2003 2006 and 2013. so here everything is in the past and
you need to use the past tenses to present the information finally we have two maps a sleep
town center now so that's the present the present tense and plant development so that's about the
future there are actually two ways to talk about a plant development you can say the plant proposes
the construction of a circular road so we use the present simple tense to talk about the future
and another one a new shopping center will be built so that's the future simple tense
will be built is the passive voice we don't know who's gonna build it it's not important
it will be built by someone so in your report it's best to use a combination of both tenses next
have at least two body paragraphs in your report if you have two maps in your task it's quite
logical to think that you will have two body paragraphs but even if you have one big chart
or a diagram you still need to have at least two body paragraphs you may have three
next don't write a conclusion you don't need it in your task one you need it in task
two in task one writing a conclusion is a waste of time so spend this time on writing a good overview
and don't give your opinion you can analyze the data but you shouldn't say what you personally
think about it so here are some examples of things you should not say in task 1. people should reduce
their consumption of sugar and saturated fat in the task we've learned that consuming too much fat
or sugar isn't healthy but this is a recommendation so it's not about the data
don't give recommendations next after the proposed development the park will be too
small so who decides if it's too small or not you do so again it's a judgment don't do that
report it neutrally the park will become smaller in size here is another one
the proposed plan has a number of drawbacks again it's you deciding what is a benefit and what is a
drawback so don't include phrases like that in your task 1 report you should also study good
quality examples one of the reasons why task 1 is so difficult is because we're not used to dealing
with this sort of information in english so you should get used to it when i moved to london a
friend of mine recommended the financial times this is a newspaper where you can find a lot
of articles describing data at first reading it was such a challenge not only words but the style
but with time it got easier and it definitely helped me improve my english
you can also go to the office for national statistics on their website they have a lot
of charts and short articles describing them and the language is concise and to the point it's
wonderful highly recommended my next tip is for those who take a paper-based exam in task 1 you
must write more than 150 words this requirement is for everyone but if you take a computer-based test
you will see how many words you've written at the bottom of the screen if you take a paper-based
test there is no information like that but you don't have time to count words during your exam
that's why you should write your practice answers on the official answer sheets with time you will
know how long your answer should be to reach the minimum word count and that will save you time
next prepare for all types of tasks in task 1 you may get charts tables maps or diagrams
it seems that charts and tables are most popular most common these days but you should definitely
prepare for all types of tasks because from time to time students get one of their rare types
next learn task 1 vocabulary we've already discussed that you need specific words to
describe your charts maps and diagrams so learning them will really help you with this task you can
find those words yourself read articles and learn new words from them i also have a ready-made guide
it's a paid product but you can download a preview for free i will link it in just a few seconds
just let me remind you about my new step-by-step ielts writing tutorial where you can write your
band 7 plus answers with me step by step and get one step closer to passing your ielts writing
test i will link it in the description and now you can download the free preview of task 1 vocabulary
right here thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye