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.
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
- Paraphrase the chart topic and specify the year and population.
- Give an overview of the shared highest and lowest categories.
- Report graduate figures in rank order, grouping the leading choices and the smaller categories.
- Report postgraduate figures in the same order to make comparisons easy.
- 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

User Essay Analysis
Review the public answer with report-style highlights.
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
Related examples for this topic
Compare different bands on the same IELTS prompt.
The charts illustrate the various destinations of UK graduate and postgraduate students who did not enter full-time employment after graduating in 2008. For graduates, the major...
Band 8.0The charts provide information on the activities of UK graduate and postgraduate students who did not secure full-time employment after leaving college in 2008. From an overall...
Band 7.0The bar chart depicts about the occupation and study status of graduates and postgraduates from the United Kingdom after finishing college,except for full-time work in 2008. In...
Band 6.0The bar charts given shows the amount of UK graduates and postgraduates went to different pathways after leaving college, instead of working as a full-time job, in 2008. Compari...
Band 5.0The bar charts provides information about what Uk Bachelor’s and Master’s degree graduates did after finishing college beside getting a full time job in 2008. Overall, it seems...
Band 4.0The given 2 bar charts illustrate what did graduate and postgraduate students from UK after finishing school in 2008 From the graduate’s chart it’s clearly seen that the higher...