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User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 7.0 Example

Original task prompt, user essay, band score, and related examples in the same report workspace.

183 words AcademicTask 1Pie Chart
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • Compare the leading reason across both years: suitable degree courses ranked first, rising slightly from 35% to 37%.
  • Highlight the largest increase: choosing a university close to the parental home went from 10% to 22%.
  • Contrast the sharpest decline with the smaller fall: sports and social activities dropped from 19% to 6%, while quality of resources moved from 21% to 17%.

Suggested structure

  1. Paraphrase the chart topic and identify both years.
  2. Give an overview of the top reason and the most notable increases and decreases.
  3. Describe the 1987 figures, grouping the largest and smallest categories.
  4. Compare the 2007 figures with 1987, using exact percentages and clear change language.
Useful vocabulary & examples
accounted for
made up a particular percentage or share

Suitable degree courses accounted for 35% of responses in 1987.

rose slightly
increased by a small amount

The share choosing suitable degree courses rose slightly to 37%.

increased considerably
grew by a noticeable amount

The proportion choosing a university close to home increased considerably, from 10% to 22%.

fell substantially
decreased by a large amount

Good sports and social activities fell substantially, from 19% to 6%.

Task Prompt

The charts below show the main reasons why students chose a particular university in the UK, in 1997 and 2007.
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 7.0

Two pie charts give information about the proportion of reasons for learners selecting a particular UK university in two separate years (1987–2007). Overall, the percentage of the main reasons for suitable degree courses, close to the parental home, and quality of teaching exhibited an upward trend, while the opposite was true for quality of resources, and good sports and social activities also declined. Suitable degree courses remained the most frequently cited reason in both years, although its share rose only slightly, from 35% to 37%. The sharpest increase was in proximity to the parental home, which more than doubled from 10% in 1987 to 22% in 2007, becoming the second-largest factor in the latter year. By contrast, the proportion choosing the university for its good sports and social activities fell markedly, from 19% to 6%, the lowest figure in 2007. Quality of resources decreased modestly, from 21% to 17%, whereas quality of teaching rose from 15% to 18%. Thus, by 2007, the two leading considerations were suitable courses and closeness to home, while sports and social facilities had become much less influential.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Replace the date range in the introduction with “in 1987 and 2007” so the two comparison points are explicit.
2
Rewrite the overview using two parallel groups: course suitability, proximity to home and teaching quality increased; resources and sports/social activities decreased.
3
Check that each percentage is described as a share of students choosing a reason, and use “from X% to Y%” when reporting a change.

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