you've just found the Ultimate Guide to
Task 1 academic writing this is the
longest most detailed most comprehensive
guide to task one anywhere on the
internet it will help you succeed by
sharing with you the tips and strategies
and structures that only band eight and
nine students really understand we'll
also share one simple structure that you
can use for any task one question and
walk you through step by step exactly
how to use it so without further Ado
let's get into it
tip number one is to understand what the
task requires you to do which is simply
describe information
say exactly what you see why are they
testing you on this because when you
move to a new country you're going to
have to look at information and then
convey that information to other people
do not make it more complicated than
that many many students will spend you
know half an hour looking at the data to
find you know this thing within the data
that is not really there the students
that get a Band-Aid the students that
get about nine look at the data pretty
quickly pick out the key things and then
put those key things on paper do not
over complicated they are not going to
give you higher marks for doing some
data analysis and finding something
there that no one has ever find before
that's not what they're testing it is
not a PhD thesis it is just testing your
English level tip number two is to do
task two first do not do task one first
why is this well if you do task 2 first
you're more likely to get it done in
under 40 minutes that leaves you 20
minutes to focus on task one and if you
only have 20 minutes at the end what
that does is it forces you to simplify
everything because you only have 20
minutes that means that you will analyze
the data quickly and you will pick out
only the main key features and then you
will write about them if you do task one
first the opposite is going to happen
students that do task one first tend to
over analyze the data make it more
complicated than it needs to be write
way too much and then they have messed
up task one and they have also messed up
past two because task two is requires 40
minutes for you to focus on and get a
good score so if you do task two first
get it done in 40 minutes then and you
will force yourself to do task one in
under 20 minutes and you'll do it the
right way you'll do it the way the band
8 and band 9 students do it which is
within 20 minutes in a simple
straightforward way tip number three is
have one structure for all of the
different types of questions that might
come up this is going to do a few
different things number one when you're
dealing with a complicated complex
situation you want to remove as much
complexity and as much stress as
possible so if you have to learn
separate strategies and separate
structures for you know eight or nine
different questions that might come up
that is just adding in way too much
complexity into an already complex thing
keep it simple by what learning one
structure and applying that to every
single question that comes up this makes
your job easy to do during your
preparation time and it makes your job
much easier on test day and anything
that removes complexity and makes your
job easier whilst at the same time
improving your score is a great thing
tip number four is to practice overviews
and writing overviews more than anything
else all right there are other things
that you need to do but if you really
nail the overview it makes everything
much much much easier so what you should
do is go on to our website go on to
ieltsadvantage.com I can't speak for
other websites but there you will find
real landline samples and the buy nine
samples will have Bar Nine overviews in
them find where they are find the actual
question but don't read the overview
don't read the sample what you're going
to do is get as many as you need as many
of those questions as you need and then
look at the data and try to write the
perfect overview once you have done that
then you can compare your review with
our overview if it's pretty much the
same then you've done a great job but if
there are some differences in the key
features then you can go and look and
think where did you go wrong how can you
improve in the future and if you use
that system over and over and over again
then overviews become pretty simple tip
number five is to use approximations
when you are describing data in the
details paragraphs so often you will get
charts for example like a line graph for
example and it will be very difficult
for you to see exactly what the data is
and this leads to two problems number
one you spend way too much time thinking
about what that is and problem number
two students often will try and write
the exact figure and that exact figure
will be wrong so for example you could
write around 2500 or just over 2500 or
approximately 2 500. all of these are
going to be correct but if you write two
thousand four hundred ninety seven and
it's not really that number then that is
wrong so again it's about doing things
that make your job easier and lead to
higher scores tip number six is
something not to do do not consider your
opinion or why this data is happening
students will often look at data and
start to think I think this is happening
because of this reason or this might
have been because of this thing they're
not asking you to interpret the data
they are asking you to convey the data
just say what you see so if you start to
think about why and you start to
formulate opinions it does two bad
things number one you're using a brain
power that you don't need to use up
think of your brain as a battery all
right there is only a certain amount of
charge in that battery if you are
thinking about lots and lots of
different things that you don't need to
think about on test day it is draining
that battery the second problem is it
doesn't ask you to give your opinion so
if you give it you're wasting time and
you are actually lowering your score for
task achievement because they didn't ask
you for your opinion they asked you to
Simply summarize the data so don't do
things you don't need to do don't drain
your battery and don't give the
examiners things that they're not
looking for give them exactly what
they're looking for tip number seven
have your writing checked by a real
professional that could be me that could
be another teacher who is a real
professional they were an ex-examiner
they know what they're doing if you do
this you're going to save yourself a
huge amount of time and money because
you were dramatically increasing your
chances of getting the score that you
need you are definitely and I say this
because I've nearly 20 years of
experience looking at these things every
single student that we work with no
matter how much preparation they put in
no matter how high until intelligent
they are are making mistakes silly
mistakes that they are unaware of I
guarantee this is happening with you and
the more of these mistakes you make the
lower your score and they're so easy to
fix but you can't see them so hire a
real professional to look at your
writing point out your mistakes and then
you won't make those on test day tip
number eight is all about word code the
appropriate word count and how you
should consider word count when you are
practicing so The Sweet Spot is between
150 and 200. don't go below 150 you
haven't put enough on paper and if
you're going over 200 you're just
writing way way too much so in between
150 and 200 if you two or one or two or
two don't freak out about it it's
generally The Sweet Spot but what you
should be doing is if you're doing the
paper-based test use the real answer
sheets and what that will allow you to
do is it will allow you to eyeball judge
exactly where you are when you're
writing what we get students to do is
kind of what does 50 of your words
look like so if you have three blocks of
those 50 that means that you are around
150 words you probably need to write a
little bit more so it allows you to
quickly judge your word kind you
shouldn't be counting every single word
on test day you just don't have time to
do it so using that technique with the
paper-based test will help you do that
the second thing you can do is if you're
doing the computer-based test is don't
have the word current there because when
you're practicing and you're constantly
looking at the word it means you're
focusing more on the word cont than
actually doing what you should be doing
Turn the word kind off and get used to
turning it on only at the end and what
that will do is it will train you to
know when you have gone over 150 words
because if you are finishing and every
time you're at 130 140 then you can
analyze it and see where you need to add
in a little bit more detail or if at the
end you're at like 250 300 then you can
recognize that and recognize that you're
writing about way too much many things
number nine is all about paraphrasing we
will go into more detail on paraphrasing
in the rest of this video but what you
can do is just get real practice tests
and paraphrase all of them all right and
what you will do is if you look at it
paraphrase it check the grammar check
the vocabulary is correct and then you
will start to see patterns so you could
actually get you know get a book and
just have all of your paraphrases beside
each other or in a Word document
whatever you want to do but you'll start
to see the same words come up again and
again and again and again you can't do
this with task 2 but you can do this
with task one you know for example chart
is going to come up again and again and
again and then what you can do is you
can note down these common words that
come up and just add in the correct
synonyms this is going to make your job
much much easier on test day because
you'll be able to change those words
automatically without really thinking
about them tip number 10 don't write
everything that you see and hope for the
best this is a strategy that a lot of
students use hope is not a good strategy
you're not going to get lucky all right
what a lot of students believe is you
know task two is worth double task one
isn't really worth much I don't like
these charts what I'll do is I'll just
write as much things as they pop into my
head hopefully I'll get lucky it's kind
of like throwing darts at a dartboard
and hoping that you hit the bullseye you
probably won't instead follow the system
follow the structure that we're going to
teach you in the rest of this video
problem number one why do I have to do
this so this problem is not to do with
your linguistic ability your grammar
your vocabulary nothing to do with that
but it is one of the main reasons why
students fail to get the score that they
deserve with task one academic which is
you know why do I have to do this this
is stupid I don't like this and what
that does is it creates a barrier to you
actually learning it and doing very well
at it so let me tell you a quick story
when I was a teenager I hated learning
French I wasn't good at it and what I
always said was I have no intention of
going to France why do I have to learn
French I hated it my French teacher
hated me and out of all the subjects
that I did in school it was the only one
that I didn't get an A in and that
probably isn't because I'm dumb like if
I got an A in every other single subject
it was because of this mindset block
what you need to do is remove that
completely from your vocabulary from
your mindset because if you keep telling
yourself why am I doing this I hate this
I'm not good at it you will never ever
ever improve because in order to improve
you're going to have to spend time
working on this and in order to do that
you have to see the point in it why are
you doing it and there's two ways of
solving that number one don't see it as
describing a bunch of charts and data
and processes that you're unfamiliar
with and you'll never use see it as
describing information and no matter
what job you do in the world no matter
what you will do in the future you will
have to describe information to other
people when you move and live in an
English-speaking country so do not see
it as something you hate see it as a
function an everyday function of
something that you are going to use
because I guarantee no matter what you
do you will have to describe information
and that is all they're testing Can you
look at information understand it and
then describe that information number
two see that you have a huge advantage
over other students because 99 of
students hate this task and don't
actually put in any effort if you change
your mindset to this is just describing
information and if I learn how to do it
I'm going to have a better score than 99
of other students and you will then
you'll be able to use it as a stepping
stone to your dream life in that new
country view it that way and your room
will remove that problem the second big
problem that we see with our students is
getting lost in the data spending too
much time trying to understand the data
there is a phrase in English paralysis
by analysis paralysis means that you
don't move and analysis means that you
are looking at information too much
paralysis by analysis in the next part
of this video we're going to show you an
easy way to overcome paralysis by
analysis but right now all you have to
do is be aware of it the third biggest
problem is going over the time limit so
for task one you will have 20 minutes
and task 2 you will have 40 minutes what
most students do is they do task one
first and they go over the 20 minute
Mark what that does is it does two Very
Bad Things
the more time that you spend on task one
generally the worse your score is going
to be I know that sounds weird I know
that sounds counter-intuitive but it is
true generally the students that get the
band aids about nines they are always
under 20 minutes the second bad thing
that will happen is you will ruin your
chances of getting a good score in the
task two because it does require at
least 40 minutes in the next section
we're going to show you how to always
finish below 20 minutes the fourth big
problem is underestimating the
significance of part one what do I mean
by that well what you will hear a lot of
the time is that part one doesn't really
matter it doesn't really contribute to
your score because task two is worth
double and when people hear that it's
worth double what they do is they focus
nearly all of their time studying for
and preparing for past two but thinking
of it as it's double doesn't really help
because our brains are not very good at
visualizing that a better way of
thinking about it is what is true which
is part one task one is one third and
task two is worth two-thirds
if you think about it that way you'll
see that one-third is a very very
significant part students that disagree
with me when I say that I say okay give
me one third of the money in your bank
account or if I went into your bank
account and took one third of your money
would you be okay about that it's
insignificant right oh no one-third is
actually a huge amount more students
fail writing as a whole because of part
one because of task one than they do
because they did badly on task two even
though it's worth only a third if you do
bad in it if you don't do as well in it
then you're dragging down your whole
score so what you need to do is prepare
at least a third of your time for task
one so if you have 100 hours to prepare
you should be spending at least 33 or 30
to 35 hours preparing for task one and
the rest of it for task two you don't
have to prepare 100 hours that is just
to demonstrate the point the fifth big
problem that we see is there's a huge
amount of misinformation about the
structure for Task 1 academic and if
there is a lot of misinformation that
leads to a lot of Confusion And if you
are confused on test day then your
writing will be confused because your
writing is a direct reflection of your
thinking confused thinking confused
writing confused writing low score so
what you need to do is go into the test
100 percent sure and certain about what
you need to do and the biggest
misconceptions and the biggest worries
that we see are surrounding the
structure about the overview some people
say you need to write an overview some
people say you need to write a
conclusion some people say you should
put the overview after the introduction
some say it must be at the end and if
you are listening to you know five
different teachers telling you five
different things you're going to go into
the test very very confused in the rest
of this video we'll show you one
structure that has produced hundreds and
probably more than 100 thousands of
bands seven eight and nine students just
follow that structure and you'll remove
all of this confusion number six
students being unfamiliar with the
specific grammar and vocabulary required
to describe data and to describe changes
this isn't something that students write
about every day and there are very very
specific grammar and vocabulary
structures that you need to be aware of
don't worry all you have to do is learn
them and we'll include that in the
grammar and vocabulary guide for you
problem number seven is writing a poor
overview the overview is the most
important part of your Task 1 report
because it actually says in the
marketing criteria that you need to
write a good clear overview to get a
seven or above if we look at the
official marketing criteria for task one
it says presents a clear overview of
main Trends differences or stages in
other words you are going to get a bond
6 or a bond 5 if you don't write a clear
overview but don't worry we'll cover
that in the rest of this video Problem
number eight is writing inaccurate data
so you include some of the data but the
data that you include is inaccurate so
this normally comes not from the student
being dumb and not understanding the
data and because the data is quite
straightforward normally 99 of the time
it comes from time management issues or
stress issues it doesn't matter who you
are it doesn't matter how good you are
at English or how intelligent you are if
you put someone under stress and rush
them you know put them under time
pressure they're going to make little
mistakes so we're going to show you how
to improve time management your stress
and also use something called
approximations to really improve the
accuracy of your data later on in the
video number nine is being overwhelmed
with all of the different types of
questions you might get line graphs you
might get bar charts you might get pie
graphs you might get tables or a mixture
of those you might get a process you
might get a map and for anybody this can
be completely overwhelming and how we
solve this is we treat every single one
of them in exactly the same way number
one by understanding that all they are
is just visual representations of data
and information and all we have to do is
convey that data to The Examiner and the
second way that you can overcome this
problem is by just using one structure
one structure for all of the different
types of charts and graphs and bar
charts and whatever you get and we'll
cover that in the rest of this video
Problem number 10 the last problem
no one there to check your mistakes it
doesn't matter who you are or how smart
you are or how much preparation you put
in you're guaranteed to make mistakes
because we all make mistakes and I
totally understand why many of you do
not hire a real professional to actually
check your work but let's be honest none
of you are completely penniless if you
want to do a test that costs 250 dollars
and you want to get on an airplane and
take you to a foreign country you do
have some money and which is more
expensive hiring a real professional
teacher to check your work and make sure
that you don't fail the test or go and
fail the test multiple multiple times
you know it's pretty easy to figure out
the answer to that question if you're
going to hire someone make sure that
they are an ex-examiner and they are a
real professional teacher not some
client on the internet that you know
tells everybody that they're the best
IELTS teacher in the world most of of
them are not if you want to get
one-on-one help from us and get us to
check your work we do have those
Services if you want but if you don't
want to use us that's fine too but feel
free to get in touch with us if you want
our help
so what we're going to do now is give
you some real examples of all the
different types of charts and graphs and
plans and maps that you might get for
Task 1 academic and then I'm going to
give you some really useful tips on how
to understand these graphs really really
easily they look intimidating they look
complex but once you understand a few
simple things they become much much
easier to understand I'm going to use
the real Cambridge books to show you
what they actually look like I would
highly recommend getting these books
because not just for writing but for
listening reading speaking you get the
real reliable practice questions okay so
the first one we're going to look at is
a line graph over time so we have the
question prompt and the instructions at
the top here and then we have a line
graph over time very very common another
one that you might see is a bar chart so
again we have the question up here and
then we have the information here so we
have bars comparing different things you
might also get a pie chart like we have
here normally it will be multiple pie
charts so we have two pie charts here
and in this one you have six different
pie charts I know that looks very
intimidating don't worry we'll show you
how to really easily understand these in
the rest of the video you might also get
multiple data sources or multiple
sources of information so here we have
two different pie charts and we've got a
table giving us data here you could have
something like this where we have two
different line graphs or you could get a
map or a plan as you can see here this
is a plan of an airport normally it will
show you a before and after this is what
it looks like no this is what it is
going to look like in the future and
finally you might get a process normally
this is to do with manufacturing or
making something like here this is
showing you how to make sugar and it's
normally a multi-step process showing
you how something is made or a process
producing something now at this stage
students are normally free taking out
and they're like how can I answer all of
these different types of question how
can I understand all of this data first
thing to remember that will make this
much much easier is why are they putting
this data into graphs why do we make
line graphs bar charts pie charts so
what you're doing when you make a line
graph like why do we make a line graph
why do we make a bar chart why do we
make a pie chart we do this so that the
people viewing the pie chart or whatever
it is can understand the data more
easily if you flip your the switch in
your mind from this is really confusing
and I know nothing about this too oh
great it's a line graph it's a pie chart
it's a bar graph this is making my life
much much easier that is why we do this
now if you don't believe me well think
about high bar charts and line graphs
are created we put raw data into an
Excel spreadsheet and then that Excel
spreadsheet makes a lovely presentable
easy to digest graph for us imagine if
they just gave you the raw data that
would be terrible that would be very
unfair so instead of thinking I can't
understand this and I don't know
anything about this think oh here
they've made it easy for me to
understand this thing the next thing is
to understand the difference between
static data and dynamic data let me
explain what that means so dynamic means
over time so for example with this one
this is from 2010 to 2017. this is
dynamic data they're showing you the
changes that happen over time now if we
compare that with this bar chart this is
static data it is not over time it is
not showing you changes over time it is
showing you a snapshot of One Moment In
Time and that brings us on to the most
important thing that is going to help
you easily understand this graph purpose
what is the purpose of making this chart
or this graph in other words why did the
person who made this why did they make
it don't think of it as an IELTS
question think of it as someone has
given you this to help you understand
this why did they make it well let's
have a look at these two graphs so the
chart below shows the results of a
survey about people's coffee and tea
buying on drinking habits in five
Australian cities so we have three
categories here bought fresh coffee in
the last four weeks bought instant
coffee in the last four weeks went to a
cafe for coffee or tea in the last four
weeks so the purpose of this data is
twofold there's two things here one is
to compare the five Australian cities so
it is comparing Sydney Melbourne
Brisbane Adelaide and Hobart and then
within each City it is to compare these
three categories of coffee or tea
drinkers now let's compare that with
this line graph over time this Dynamic
line graph over time the graph below
shows the number of tourists visiting a
particular Caribbean island between 2010
and 2017. so we have visitors on cruise
ships visitors staying on the island and
then total so why did the person make
this what is the purpose of this data
well below here we have the date over
time so it is to show changes over time
and it is also to compare the number of
people staying on cruise ships with the
number of people actually staying on the
land so we will show the changes over
time and then compare those two
categories of people so by understanding
the purpose it helps us focus and hone
in on what the most important data is
and to understand the graph much much
easier now let's have a look at
something a little bit more complex so
the chart below shows what anthropology
graduates from one University they did
after finishing their undergraduate
degree course the table shows the
salaries of the Anthropologist and work
after five years so this is a pie chart
so what they're doing is they're showing
the proportion of the different
categories here so what is the purpose
of showing the different proportions
well we can compare all of these
different things so we can just compare
you know more than 50 percent of people
who are in full-time work compared to
just 15 percent in part-time work so we
are comparing those three or four or
five things if we look at the table it's
really comparing these three different
types of employment freelance
Consultants government sector and
private companies and then we are
comparing how much money each of those
sectors can make what is the purpose of
this well this is showing you how to
make instant noodles in a factory not in
your kitchen why would somebody make
this well if somebody wanted to set up a
factory making instant noodles this
would be great quite helpful so it is
helping simplify the whole process of
making noodles so instead of looking at
it and going I don't know anything about
noodles all I know about noodles is how
to eat them this is actually trying to
simplify the whole process of
manufacturing instant noodles to help
you understand so don't over complicate
it just look at it it's pretty simple
why would somebody make this map well
they tell you exactly why they made it
because they want to compare what it
looked like in 2007 compared to what it
looked like in 2010 you don't need to be
an architect or someone who designs
hospitals you just need to show the
difference because that's the purpose to
show the difference what's the purpose
of a bar chart to compare the different
categories what's the purpose of a line
graph to show changes over time what's
the purpose of a pie chart to compare
the different portion by understanding
why they made it the purpose it becomes
very very easy to understand the key
things within that data and another way
to simplify this whole process is to
have one structure for all of the
different types of graph map process
doesn't matter what it is you just use
one structure let's have a look at that
now so for task one academic we call
this our pyramid structure and it'll
become clear why we use this pyramid
structure in a second so if we start up
here
this is our first paragraph This is Our
introduction and all the introduction is
is a paraphrase of the question
statement what do I mean by that well if
you have a look here the chart below
shows the percentage of households in
owned and rented accommodation in
England and Wales between 1918 and 2011.
for your introduction all you're going
to do is take this question statement
not this just this bit and you're going
to paraphrase it you're going to State
it in your own words so that it means
the same thing using different words if
that sounds complicated don't worry
about it we're going to show you in more
detail how to do that later in the video
now we move on to paragraph two this is
our overview and an overview is simply
the two to four could be two could be
three could be four most important
things so you look at the map or the
plan or the bar chart of the line graph
and you pick out the two or three or
four or most important most significant
features of that information and you put
it in your overview you do not include
any detail you do not include any data
and there are two ways that we teach
students how to think about this we'll
go into more detail later in the video
but just to go through this very quickly
if I put a gun to your head and said you
can only pick two or three or four of
the most important things about the data
gun to your head
you have to do that what would you pick
or another way to think about it a less
violent way to think about it would be
if you are writing for a newspaper for
example so often you will see newspaper
headlines and what the whole article is
based on is a bar chart or a line graph
or some kind of data that has come out
recently and because people who read
newspapers don't want to sift through
all this data what the headline normally
does is it gives people the most
important thing one or two or three most
important things the most striking thing
about the data so if you were writing
for a newspaper what would the headline
be or if you were giving this to your
boss so if you were working for the CEO
of a big company they employ you to do
the work for them there you're not going
to send them a bar chart you're not
going to send them a line graph you're
going to send them a line graph and say
so you don't have to read this and
understand it here are the most
important points think about it that way
that makes the overview much simpler
okay so paragraph one paragraph two then
we have details one and we have details
two so it's a four paragraph structure
introduction overview details one
details two and this is where you go
into detail on the main features so
you're not writing everything what
you're doing is you're summarizing the
main features the key features you're
going into detail on those in the
details paragraphs why do we do that
because for every question it always
says summarize the information by
selecting and Reporting the main
features on make comparisons where
relevant every question says exactly the
same thing it does not say write
everything that you see summarize select
and then report the key main features
and that is why it is the shape of a
pyramid the introduction has no detail
whatsoever it's just one sentence
introducing what the thing is about
overview is a little bit longer but
again no detail it only contains the
most important features it is an
overview of of those and then in the
details paragraphs then we go into more
detail it is longer we include data we
include more specific things one
question we often get asked or two
questions really is no conclusion no you
do not put a conclusion for Task 1
academic a conclusion is a summary of
your opinion there is no opinion here
you are simply reporting exactly what
you see it has no opinion there is no
summary of opinion therefore there is no
conclusion this confusion comes from I
hate to say it but it's true there are a
lot of teachers out there that don't
really know what they're doing and they
get confused between an overview and a
conclusion and then they tell their
students oh you must put a conclusion
here because they're getting mixed up
between overview and conclusion and
they're getting mixed up between Task 1
and task two so this just creates a lot
of confusion and a lot of failure
don't
to that it is going to lead to failure a
lot of students also ask about the
position of the overview like should I
put it here or should I put it at the
end it really doesn't matter what
matters is the quality of your overview
what features do you pick what do you
put into your overview it doesn't really
matter the position of that overview on
test day we want to minimize the number
of things that we are thinking about so
that we can focus on the most important
things don't go into the test thinking
about conclusions and overviews and
where should I put it just learn one
thing memorize it and do it on test day
that is going to minimize the amount of
thinking that you have to do and it will
allow you to really focus and really
think about the things that need
thinking about
so what I'm going to do now is use this
structure apply it to a real question
and show you step by step how to write a
band 9 answer so the first thing we're
going to do something that a lot of
people Overlook is read the question and
think about the meaning of the question
so don't look at the data first that
will cause overwhelm it will cause
confusion just break everything down
into baby steps so let's start off with
baby step number one the question so it
states here the graph below shows the
number of tourists visiting a particular
Caribbean island between 2010 and 2017.
summarize the information by selecting
and Reporting the main features and make
comparisons where relevant each question
will always have two parts for task one
it will have the question prompt and
then it will have summarize the
information by selecting and Reporting
the main features and make comparisons
were relevant this bit here this never
changes this is always the same this
will be different what we need to do is
read this and understand everything so
the graph below shows the number of
tourists so pretty straightforward most
people who are hoping to get about seven
eight or nine will understand that
visiting a particular Caribbean island
so even if you don't know what the
Caribbean is or you've never heard of
the Caribbean or the Caribbean as they
say in America it's just number of
people visiting an island if you see a
word and you don't understand don't
freak out and be like oh my God I don't
understand this I'm going to fail you
don't actually need to know what
Caribbean means in order to get about
nine for this question then between 2010
and 2017 so we understand everything
that's going on we can move on to the
next step the next step is don't look at
the actual data look at the information
surrounding the graph or whatever it is
so we have the title here we have the
x-axis we have the y-axis and then we
have the key here so it's really
important that we read this and
understand it now we're taking a long
time to do this right now but if you get
into the habit of following these steps
you'll be able to do these pretty much
instantly on test day it's all about
practice and making this a habit so
number of tourists visiting a Caribbean
Island 2010 2017. so there's nothing
that is different here if there was
something a little bit different we
would have to look at it again maybe
think about it what is the difference
between this but here it's exactly the
same information
millions of tourists so it's saying one
so we're not going to write one tourist
or you know 3.5 tourists three and a
half people didn't visit the island it's
three and a half million all right so
millions of visitors we need to put that
into our answer when we're writing about
it next we have 2010 to 2017. so this
shows that it is a dynamic chart it is
showing change over time then we need to
look at the key here so we have visitors
staying on a cruise ship the little
squares little triangles people staying
on the island and then the total number
here the little circles so because we
have three separate categories here what
this is telling us is this is not only
showing change over time it is comparing
three different things and then when we
look at it in a little bit more detail
we can see that the total is the number
of cruise ship visitors and the number
of people staying on the island that is
these two put together so really when we
start thinking about purpose it's by
understanding all of this information
that we start to think about purpose why
did this person make this graph don't
think of it as an IELTS test think of it
as a real graph why would somebody make
this that brings us on to to step 3
understand the data from a high level
right so we're not looking at individual
data points we're kind of zooming out a
30 000 foot View and we're looking at
the overall trend for this data there's
three different ways that we teach our
students how to understand this data
first of all imagine that you are
reading a newspaper headline so often
you will read newspapers and a lot of
the stories will be about a release of
data so recent data shows this or a
survey shows this and it won't actually
show the graph because people are too
lazy to read and understand graphs what
it will do is the newspaper reporter
will look at the data and they'll come
up with two or three or four of the most
important things and they'll normally
put those in the title so if you were
looking at this data what would the
title be of the newspaper report so it
would probably say something thing about
the total number of visitors is
continuing to rise steadily and it would
probably say something about you know
that big rise is not necessarily coming
from people actually staying on the
island that's because there has been a
big big increase in the number of people
visiting by cruise ships so if you were
writing a newspaper report about this
the headline would probably be something
like number of tourists increases
dramatically mostly due to people
visiting on cruise ships or something
like that that's the first way to think
about it so the second way if you don't
like that way you can think of this
alternative way if you could only say
two to four things about this data so
two three or four things so I literally
put a gun to your head and say you must
give me two to four things you can only
say that what would they be you would
probably say well the total number of
people is increasing the number of
people staying on the island increased a
little bit but it's kind of remained
pretty steady and then if we look at the
cruise ships the third thing we would
say is you know it did remain pretty
steady and between 2010 and 2013 then we
see a big big rise and it's actually
overtaken people staying on the island
so a big thing here is if we look at
this part of the data is you know people
staying on the island that used to be
number one but now it's number two most
people now stay on cruise ships and that
has been a change since we started in
2010. so you can see by using these
techniques what we're doing is we're not
getting lost in the data we're looking
at it from a high level we're looking
down and seeing what's going on from
that Vantage Point another way that you
could do this is this is a third way you
don't have to use all three some people
use just one some people use two or
three
if you were to write a report for your
boss so why are they giving you stuff
like this well IELTS is not only testing
your ability to go to university and
interpret data like this at University
it is testing your ability to interpret
data and report it to your boss your
supervisor whoever it is when you move
to that new country a lot of jobs are
looking at data or information in some
way it doesn't have to be line graphs
just looking at information and then
summarizing that for your boss so I am a
lot of people's boss and if I asked my
employees
to give me the main points of this graph
and they gave me 20 different points I
would probably fire that person or they
would be you know doing a little bit of
training because I don't pay people to
tell me everything that is in a graph I
pay people to summarize the most
important points so if your boss said to
you have a look at this data and just
tell me what are the most important
things about this what would you say
well you would probably say the exact
same things the total number of people
is going up and this is due to the fact
that there has been a big increase in
the number of people visiting on cruise
ships and it used to be that not many
people visited on cruise ships and now
it is actually overtaken the number of
people that are visiting and staying on
land so what have we just done there we
have got our overview the overview is
the most important paragraph in the
entire report you cannot get a bond
seven eight or nine if you don't write a
good overview what I've done there is
I've forced you to pick out the most
important overall points that you're
going to put into your overview so by
analyzing the data in that way you
started to think about the most
important things
in the most important paragraph the
overview we'll look at that in a little
bit more detail but when we come to
writing our overview we'll see that it
is very very easy because we have
analyzed the data in that way and you
don't become good at overviews by
writing lots of overviews you become
good at overviews by following these
steps you cannot write a good overview
if you don't understand the question
prompt if you don't understand the data
if you don't look at it from a thirty
thousand foot view the next thing we're
going to do is we're going to break each
part of the data into chunks so how do
you eat a steak do you pick up a steak
and try and shove it into your mouth no
you will choke you'll never be able to
eat it you cut it into pieces you cut it
into chunks that's exactly what we're
going to do with this data to make it
easier to understand and easier to
organize so what we're going to do is
there's three lines here let's take the
first line which is the total number so
what we're going to do is we're going to
use two rulers to show you how to do
this chunking so we're only going to
focus on
total number little circles here so we
look at this entire line and we think
how could we break this into chunks well
if we start here in 2010 we'll see that
it increases
and then it stops increasing here in
2014. so here is our first chunk of data
total number of visitors between 2010
and 2014 increases then if we look here
2014 to 2016 or you could do 2015 to
2016 doesn't really matter this is not
an exact science or anything like that
but between 2014 and 2016 stays
relatively stable
and then between 2016 and 2017 there is
a big big increase actually the biggest
increase
so by breaking it down into three chunks
it makes it much more manageable more
digestible that's why I gave you the
stake cutting analogy then if we look at
visitors staying on the island we'll see
that between 2010 and 2011 stays pretty
much the same then between 2011 and 2013
there is an increase
and then between 2013 and 2017 it stays
pretty steady there is a little dip in
2016 but again don't over complicate
this every time I show this to students
especially people who who are quite
mathematically inclined they will spend
way too much time getting lost in the
data we're trying to chunk things to
make it easier to eat not to make it
more complicated
then if we look at visitors staying on a
cruise between 2010 and 2013
and it fluctuates a little bit
but stays relatively low then between
2013 and 2017 we see a nice steady
increase so now let's zoom out a little
bit again I know I'm going very very
slowly I realize that
let's zoom out and let's have a think
about what we understand now and compare
that with most students so what we
understand is we understand the question
we understand everything about the graph
all of the information
we understand the key trends the overall
things the overview that we're going to
put together and we understand the data
we've chunked it we've made it easy to
understand now compare that with what
most students do most students will look
at this and go oh I don't know anything
about the Caribbean I hate this oh I
don't understand what's going on and
then they start to panic and don't know
what's going on and then their writing
will be a reflection of their thinking
if you follow these steps your writing
will be very well organized clear and
easy to understand what is the main
difference between Bond seven eight and
nine
and students that get a band four five
or six
seven eight and nine isn't better in
terms of it has amazing language and
they've spotted something in the data
that no one has ever seen before no it
is just really clear well organized easy
to understand how do you get there you
get there by following those steps the
next step is to look for any important
or relevant comparisons because if we
have a look at the question prompt and
make comparisons where relevant where
relevant means if there are comparisons
talk about them if there aren't any
relevant comparisons then you don't have
to talk about them so let's have a look
and see and remember purpose why are
they showing you this data it is to
compare visitors staying on cruise ships
with visitors staying on the island so
comparisons are probably going to be
between those two so the key comparison
here is at the beginning most people
stayed on land there weren't that many
people
visiting comparatively there weren't
that many people visiting on cruise
ships
but by the end there were more people
visiting via a cruise ship then staying
on land those are our key comparisons
told you it's not that complicated so
now we have all this information now
it's time to start writing so if we have
a look at our pyramid here we need to
write our first paragraph which is our
introduction which is just taking the
question and paraphrasing it let's do
that so you're going to take this first
sentence and you're just going to write
it using different words that mean the
same thing as this so your new sentence
should use different words but it should
mean exactly the same thing let's show
you how to do that so we're going to
change the graph we can't change the you
know you have to keep
things like articles and prepositions
you can have to keep those in sometimes
it's not about changing every single
word but we've changed the graph to the
line graph we've used different words to
say the same thing it is not
paraphrasing is not about changing the
and then changing graph and then
changing below and then changing shows
that's not how you paraphrase shows
we're going to change that to presents
we don't have to write below because
there will be nothing below shows
presents means exactly the same thing
we're using synonyms we're going to
change the number of tourists to the
number of visitors and you'll notice
what I'm doing again I'm not looking at
individual words I'm chunking this
sentence so the graph is one chunk I've
changed that to the line graph shows
that's one chunk I've changed that too
presents the number of tourists that's a
third chunk of change that to the number
of visitors and I'm doing that for two
reasons number one it is much easier and
number two one of the worst pieces of
advice that any teacher can give you is
you must change every word and you must
change every word in order that is
impossible and if I can't do that you
won't be able to do that so you know
teachers shouldn't be teaching you
methods that are impossible visitors
to uh specific
specific particular synonyms Caribbean
we cannot change Caribbean Caribbean is
the Caribbean we'll change Ireland to
destination and we'll change between
2010 and 2017 to from
2010
to
2017.
so what we need to do now is we need to
look at that sentence and compare it
with our sentence doesn't mean the same
thing yes it does are there any grammar
mistakes are there any vocabulary errors
in there no there's not we can move on
the next step is to write our overview
we've already thought about our overview
so it should be quite easy to write we
always start our overview with overall
don't learn 17 different ways to do that
just overall comma begin your overview
so if we have a look here at our pyramid
we need to pick up the two to four most
important things we're not going to
include any detail and we can use one of
those methods that we talked about
before so if this was a newspaper
headline if we were writing to our boss
if we could only talk about two three or
four things what would we write about
we're definitely going to say the number
overall increased that's kind of the
most obvious standout thing so we're
going to include that so let's put that
in so overall the total number of
visitors increased throughout the given
period so from 2010 to 2017 the period
that we have been given
it increased doesn't need to be any more
complicated than that then what we said
was most people stayed on the island
at the beginning
but
people visiting via cruise ship that
really increased and overtook
and became number one by the end of the
period so we need to put that into our
overview
so despite the majority staying on land
initially as we can see here initially
means at the beginning of the period
this was surpassed so it overtook by
those arriving on cruise liners in the
final two years if we have a look again
at our little checklist did we say the
two to four most important things yes
number one total number increased number
two most people stayed on the island in
the beginning
number two number three by the end of
the period most people visited via
cruise ships those are the three most
important things no detail we didn't
include any detail whatsoever we're
going to put that into our details
paragraphs and that's us done now we can
move on to the next step so the next
step is to decide how you're going to
organize your details paragraphs we're
not just going to go in and write
everything that we know about the data
and put it into two paragraphs remember
we're being judged on our organization
of this information so what we need to
do is look at the data and think what is
The Logical way to write about this and
that brings us back to purpose and the
key things about this so what are the
key things the most important is number
of overall people increase throughout
the period and then compare the two
different categories so The Logical the
obvious way to organ the details
paragraphs remember we always have two
details paragraphs is in the first
details paragraph we're going to write
about the number of people visiting
overall and then in the second details
paragraph We are going to compare these
two
so let's write our first details
paragraph about the number overall so in
the real test what I would be doing is
just focusing on this line and then I
would be chunking that information so
I'd be saying okay between 2010 and 2015
it's steadily increased you want to
write about that then
kind of plateaued
and then we've seen our biggest increase
between 2016 and 2017. I'm going to take
that chunking and he's going to put it
on paper what chunking also does is it
encourages you to write only about the
most important data so we're not going
to write about in 2010
it was this and then in 2011 it was this
and then 2012 it was this and then 2013
it was this in 2014 it was this it's not
asking you to write about everything
summarize the information select and
Report the main features if we just look
at the line the main features are in
2010 it was this and that increased to
here then it plateaued and then we had a
big increase so we're going to focus in
on that data
so let's start off at the start
total number
the island in 2010 was
it's pretty clear this is buying on one
million now we need to describe what
happened between 2010 and 2015. this
figure
annual
to reach
2.75
in 2015.
we don't know that it's exactly 2.75
because it's kind of in the middle here
but we can get around that we can become
accurate by just saying approximately a
run so we've just described our first
chunk now let's describe our second
chunk it's plateaued
at this level in 2016 before
experiencing its largest increase so of
all this data this was the biggest
one-year increase so we should mention
that
between 2016
and
2017 soaring dramatically
to its peak
so Peak tells the examiner that we're
aware that this is the biggest number of
three and a half million
so you can see the chunking just makes
it very very easy now we need to write
about both people staying on cruise
ships and staying on land and we need to
compare those so let's start at the
start most people stayed on land at the
beginning of the period let's talk about
that in 2010 most
resided on the island around three
quarters of a million you can write
three quarters as words if you want
because I'm running out of a room here
on the page I'm just putting three
quarters but you know as long as the
examiner can read it and understand it
and it's clear then don't worry about
the difference between words and numbers
so with around three quarters of a
million remaining on land so I don't
think it's that significant that you
know between 2010 and 2011 they kind of
plateaued and then before then it kind
of increased
I think what we can just say is for this
data it peaked so the maximum number
peaked in 2013. I think that's more
significant so this peaked in 2013 1.5
million and hovered around that level
four
the remainder of
the period
so it peaked in 2013
and then it stayed in and around there
like hovered in and around there until
the end as some of you might say well
why didn't you say between 2013 and 2015
stayed the same and then it dipped on in
2016 and then it increased in 2017 we
don't need to go into that much detail
because that deep chunk between 2013 and
2017 the most significant thing about
that is that it remained pretty much the
same a slight dip is not that important
remember we're only putting in the key
information now let's talk about cruises
the number of thing to visit on cruises
fluctuated between quarter and a half
a million so you have around a quarter
of a million here that pops up to half
quarter half fluctuates in and around
that between 2010 and 2013.
I'm putting a plus in there forgive me
it's just because I'm running out of
room normally you would put and don't
put Plus in the real exam and then after
2013 we can see that it starts to
increase and then overtakes the number
of people staying on land here so we
need to describe that in 2014 there was
a sharp
escalation and cruise
visitors a trend which continued year on
year
reaching 1.5 I'm going to put Mill here
in the real test you would write the
full million in 2016 and culminating at
2 million in 2017.
the highest
of
any category I'm putting any category
here
I'm talking about the two categories
visitors on cruise ships staying on the
island
we're not including total here because
that's kind of its separate category and
total is part of those two so you know
some people in the comments are going
crazy now relax
in any
year just had enough space to finish
that off so by the time you write your
last word and put a full stop there
should be around you know between 15 to
18 minute Mark something like that so
you'll have a few minutes at the end or
maybe just one minute at the end to read
it and check it make sure you didn't
make any mistakes and then move on
what I would also recommend you do in
the real test is just skip a line
between each paragraph just makes it
easier for the examiner to understand
where one paragraph ends and the next
begins
and removes any chance that they would
Mark you down for that I haven't done
that especially between my two details
paragraphs that is on purpose because
this isn't a real test this is a YouTube
video and I was running out of room
so now it's your turn what I'm going to
do is I'm going to give you this sample
question and I'm going to walk you
through step by step exactly what you
should do now if you want you can pause
the video at any time don't worry about
this this is totally normal when you're
learning a new technique learning a new
strategy take as much time as you want
or if you want to go quickly just go
through it straight away but I would
recommend after each step pause and then
we will go on to the next step you can
just play press play again okay so let's
have a look at the question step number
one read the question prompt do you
understand all of the words step number
two read the information in the graph
read the title do you understand what
that means read the y-axis and the
x-axis what does it say there
and look at the different categories
understand the difference between these
categories step number three look and
understand the data at a very high level
the goal here is not to look at
individual data points is to look at it
from that thirty thousand foot View and
think about these three questions what
would the newspaper headline be if this
graph or chart was in a newspaper
what would the headline be question
number two if you could only say a few
things about this you could only say two
or three things about this data what
would it be and number three if you were
working for someone if you had to
summarize this information for your boss
what two or three things would you send
to your boss one key thing to remember
at this stage is don't get lost in the
data and the easiest way not to get lost
in the data is to force yourself not to
spend too much time looking at it in
general students that spend too much
time looking at data perform worse than
students that just look at the data for
you know one to three minutes quite
quickly and pick out the most important
things step number four break the data
into chunks so if this is a line graph
for example look at each line and try
and break it down into chunks step
number five are there any relevant
comparisons think about why they made
this graph did they make it to compare
things if they did what are the most
striking the most relevant the most
significant comparisons okay now you
should have fully understood all of the
data do not spend any more time looking
at it and thinking about it step number
six now it's time to start writing get
your pen piece of paper and write out
your introduction what you're going to
do is you're going to take the question
prompt and you're going to paraphrase it
paraphrasing does not mean change every
single word in order it means change
enough of the words so that it means
exactly the same thing so write it in
your own words but make sure that it
means the same step number seven now
it's time to write your overview skip a
line start a new paragraph and write
overall
comma and then put in two three or four
of the most significant overall features
of the data or the map or the plan if
you are uncertain or you don't know what
to write go back to the questions those
three questions and the comparisons what
are the most important things put that
down don't overthink it what a lot of
students think is that because this is
an IELTS test that they must write
something high level or complex most of
the time the overview contains really
obvious simple straightforward things
don't second guess yourself and think
that it's too simple it normally isn't
step number eight decide how you're
going to organize your details
paragraphs what is the most logical way
of organizing your details paragraphs
what are you going to put in paragraph
number one details paragraph number one
and details paragraph number two if you
don't know what these are put yourself
in the shoes of the reader what will
make it easy for the reader to
understand step number nine now it's
time to write our two details paragraphs
skip a line after your overview and
write your first details paragraph
if you don't know what to write go back
to that chunking of the information
you're not writing about everything
you're just separating it out into
chunks and writing about it in that way
now that you've finished your details
paragraphs go and check that all of the
information is accurate that the data is
accurate if you're unsure remember to
add in approximations last step check
your grammar check your vocabulary check
your spelling if there's any mistakes in
there that you can fix fix them and now
you're done okay so now what I'm going
to do is I'm going to give you a
checklist I'm not going to give you a
sample answer sample answers are good
they do have value but on test day you
will not have a sample answer so
students that get used to sample answers
and just copying sample answers don't do
as well as students that use both sample
answers and checklists and in general
students that get a Band-Aid or get
about 9 for task one they use more
checklists why because on test day you
can use a checklist to make sure that
you've done everything correctly you
cannot use a sample answer it's just not
how it's going to work on test day we
want to recreate test day during our
preparation time as much as possible so
what I want you to do is take your
Task 1 report that you just produced and
I want you to apply this checklist and
if you get something correct give it a
tick that's good but if you didn't get
something that's even better because why
do we use checklists we use checklists
not to give ourselves a pat on the back
and say you know good boy good girl
we're not children here what we're
trying to do is find out the stuff that
we didn't do well to uncover our
mistakes because those are golden that's
where the real Improvement comes so if
you get something wrong good then next
time you can get that correct and then
before your test what you should be
doing is doing this under 20 minutes on
being able to apply this checklist
yourself and be able to tick everything
and then you know you're ready so let's
start off with our introduction look at
your introduction look at the question
prompt does it mean the same thing if it
does good if it doesn't then you need to
work on your paraphrasing normally
students that need to work on their
paraphrasing it's normally because they
have been told by other teachers that
they must change every word or they must
use complex vocabulary or complex
grammar the best way to improve your
paraphrasing is number one through
practice number two just simplify
everything and don't be afraid to repeat
some of the words paraphrasing again I
know I'm repeating myself here is not
about changing every single word look at
your introduction again are there any
spelling or grammar or vocabulary
mistakes in there if there are fix them
don't worry about it and the solution to
having lots of grammar and vocabulary
errors is number one practice number two
improve your grammar improve your
vocabulary if you need help with that we
do have our VIP course or you can get in
touch with us and you know we can help
you in different ways but the way that
you can help yourself for free today
instantly is simplify everything it is
not essential to get a band eight or
nine for every single word to be a band
9 high level word you know word like the
ah two these are the most common words
in the English language the greatest
writers of all time use them all the
time next have a look at your overview
is it clear where your overview begins
in other words is your paragraphing
clear
did you skip a line between your
introduction and your overview it should
be super clear to The Examiner next on
the checklist for your overview did you
begin your overview with overall comma
next did you include any data so it's
okay if you maybe included a date that's
not really data but you shouldn't really
include any data points from the graph
next have I included two to four key
features if you've only got one that's
not enough but if you've included like
five or six different things that's way
too many sometimes it's two sometimes
it's three times sometimes it's four
looking again at your overview are the
features that you included the most
significant features and finally have
you made comparisons where relevant just
a little tip on this it is often a good
idea to leave this and do it with what
we call Fresh eyes so if you are
practicing it is a good idea just to
leave this for a few hours or maybe
return to it the next day or a few days
later because often you will see things
and identify things that you didn't see
the first time so students often say you
know how will I know if these are key
features look at it with fresh eyes now
let's move on to the checklist for
details paragraphs number one is your
paragraphing clear is it clear where the
overview ends on the first details
paragraph begins and is it clear where
this first detail paragraph ends and the
second one begins next is the way that
you have organized the information in
your two details paragraph is that
logical
again a good way of doing this is to go
back and read it with fresh eyes read it
a few hours later read it the next day
does it make sense to you is it easy for
you to understand if it is not easy for
you to understand it will definitely not
be easy to understand for another human
being next is did you only include the
most significant the most relevant
information in your details paragraphs
if you have put everything in there and
it's way too long then that is a clear
indication that you put in too much is
my data accurate go and check every
single data point that you put in your
details paragraph double check it with
the data is it accurate and have you
made comparisons where relevant okay
let's zoom out now and look at your
whole Task 1 report number one is your
paragraphing clear I know that I have
repeated myself I've mentioned this a
few times but it's really the easiest
marks that you can yet and it's the
easiest way to lower your score as well
number two did I follow the structure so
the structure that we gave you in this
video is not a suggestion it is a
prescription you should follow it
exactly what a lot of students do is
they look at a structure and they
generally follow it they don't follow it
exactly if you went to the doctor and
the doctor told you to do something you
would do it exactly you wouldn't
generally follow their advice and also
this is based on what thousands of
students have done to get the score that
they need also what a lot of students do
is they follow five six different
teachers especially on YouTube they all
have a different strategy I'm not saying
you have to follow me but I do have more
bands seven eight and nine success
stories than any other IELTS teacher in
the world so it's probably a good idea
to follow someone who has actually
helped students do what you're trying to
do next count the total number of words
is it between 150 and 200 if it's under
150 that is a major problem that you
need to address you're probably not
writing enough in your details
paragraphs if you are going way over 200
like if you're two or one two or six
like that doesn't really matter but if
you're at like between 210 and you know
over that means that you're writing too
much in your details paragraphs last but
not least is my spelling is my grammar
is my vocabulary accurate remember that
structure and organizing the information
identifying the key features and all of
these things are only really half of
your marks fifty percent of your marks
will come from accurate clear
appropriate grammar and vocabulary and
just to remind you we're not looking for
Perfection here what we're looking for
is progress if you made mistakes no that
is great because you now know what your
weaknesses are and you can work on those
weaknesses and improve if you want our
help doing that or if you want us to
help you with other types of task one
then we do have our VIP course we also
have a correction service or we have
other free courses always feel free to
get in touch with us Chris
ieltsadvantvantage.com we answer a
hundred percent of the emails that we
receive always feel free to send us an
email so that was the beginner's guide
to task one if you want a more advanced
lesson click here and I'm going to show
you how I would transform about six task
one response to to about eight or nine
click on here and I'll show you exactly
how to do that
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