Back to Writing Hub

User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 4.0 Example

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

197 words AcademicTask 1Multiple Graphs
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • Further study was the leading destination for both graduates and postgraduates.
  • Voluntary work was the least common option in each group.
  • Graduate counts exceeded postgraduate counts in all four categories, with the biggest absolute difference in further study.

Suggested structure

  1. Paraphrase the chart topic and specify the year and population.
  2. Give an overview of the shared highest and lowest categories.
  3. Report graduate figures in rank order, grouping the leading choices and the smaller categories.
  4. Report postgraduate figures in the same order to make comparisons easy.
  5. Close with the most notable difference between the two groups.
Useful vocabulary & examples
the most common destination
The option chosen by the largest number of people.

Further study was the most common destination for both groups.

ranked second
Was the second-highest category in a set of figures.

Part-time work ranked second for graduates.

by contrast
A linking phrase used to introduce a noticeably different figure or fact.

By contrast, only 3,500 graduates undertook voluntary work.

the largest difference
The greatest gap between two compared figures.

The largest difference between the groups was in further study.

Task Prompt

The charts below show what UK graduate and postgraduate students who did not go into full-time work did after leaving college in 2008. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 4.0

The given bar charts give information about how English graduate and post graduate students who do not have full time job spend their time after leaving collage in 2008. It can be clearly seen that, graduates students accounted for majority of the students when it compared with postgraduates students in UK. However, regarding graduate and postgraduate students, the charts show four destinations after college: part-time work, voluntary work, further study and unemployment. For graduates, further study was the most common choice, at 29,665 people. Part-time work was next, with 17,735, followed by unemployment at 16,235. Only 3,500 graduates did voluntary work.

The postgraduate figures were much lower in all categories. Further study was also the most popular destination, with 2,725 students, slightly more than part-time work, at 2,535. Unemployment affected 1,625 postgraduates, while voluntary work was the least common option, with 345 people. Overall, the numbers of graduates were higher than postgraduates for every destination. In both groups, further study had the highest number and voluntary work had the lowest. The difference between the two groups was especially large for further study, while their figures for voluntary work were closer.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Replace the unsupported “majority” claim with an overview based on the chart: graduates had higher counts in every destination, and further study was the largest category for both groups.
2
Check every figure against the chart while drafting: graduates (17,735; 3,500; 29,665; 16,235) and postgraduates (2,535; 345; 2,725; 1,625), in the chart’s category order.
3
After writing, proofread the introduction specifically for UK/English accuracy, college spelling, graduate/postgraduate word forms, and missing articles or auxiliaries.

Related examples for this topic

Compare different bands on the same IELTS prompt.

Browse all