Academic Task 1
The commonest Task 1 question, and the one with the clearest rules. With a worked example and a practice exercise.
An IELTS line graph shows how something changed over a period of time, which makes it the most predictable question in Academic Task 1. The data has a direction, and your job is to report where it went rather than to list every point along the way.
That distinction is the whole task. A candidate who describes every value writes a great deal and scores Band 6, because Task Achievement rewards selecting the significant features rather than recording all of them.
The task
Six points, in the order you need them under time.
The horizontal axis is almost always time. That means past dates take the past simple, and a graph running to the present or beyond takes the present perfect or a future form.
An introduction that paraphrases the question, an overview, and two body paragraphs. This structure works for every line graph and removes the need to plan a new shape each time.
One or two sentences on the overall picture: the general direction, and the biggest gap. No individual figures belong here, and an answer without an overview cannot pass Band 6 on Task Achievement.
If three lines rise and one falls, that is your two body paragraphs. Grouping by behaviour is far stronger than taking each line in turn.
Verb plus adverb, as in rose sharply, or adjective plus noun, as in a sharp rise. Using both gives you variety without any additional risk.
Two or three well-chosen figures per body paragraph is enough. Quote the start, the end and any turning point, and leave the rest.
Worked example
The data below is what a typical line graph would show. The model covers the introduction and overview.
| Country | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country A | 28% | 72% | 94% |
| Country B | 12% | 55% | 89% |
| Country C | 4% | 18% | 61% |
Introduction. The graph shows the proportion of households with access to the internet at home in three countries between 2000 and 2020.
Overview. Access rose substantially in all three countries over the period. Country A led throughout and was the first to approach saturation, while Country C started from a very low base and remained well behind the other two at the end of the period, despite growing the fastest in relative terms.
Body paragraph. In 2000, only 28 per cent of households in Country A had internet access, but this figure had risen to 72 per cent by 2010 and reached 94 per cent by 2020. Country B followed a similar path from a lower starting point of 12 per cent, closing much of the gap to finish just five percentage points behind.
Notice that the overview contains no figures and the body paragraph contains few. That balance is what separates a Band 7 answer from one that lists every value on the graph.
Method
Six things that decide whether this task reaches Band 7.
The dates decide your tense and the unit decides whether you are dealing with percentages, thousands or millions. Both are marked, and both are easy to get wrong in the first sentence.
The introduction should rewrite the question in your own words. Copied wording is not counted towards the word total and does nothing for Lexical Resource.
Placing it directly after the introduction is standard and makes the answer easy to follow. Some candidates put it last, which works but risks running out of time.
Rose steadily, a steady rise, climbed, increased gradually, levelled off, peaked at. Repeating increased eight times is the most visible limitation in this task.
The graph does not say why anything happened, and speculation costs marks under Task Achievement. Report only what is shown.
Task 2 is worth twice as much. A perfect Task 1 written in thirty-five minutes is a poor trade.
Practice
Six questions on the language this task needs. Choose the best option.
Every option below is grammatically possible. The question is which one an examiner would read as accurate and appropriately selective.
That judgement is what Task Achievement and Lexical Resource are measuring in this task.
1Which is the better overview sentence?
The second. An overview states the overall pattern without individual figures. The first is a list, the third is an opinion the graph does not support, and the fourth is the introduction rather than the overview.
2Correct the error: The figure increased sharp between 2000 and 2010.
Increased sharply. A verb takes an adverb. If you prefer the noun form, write there was a sharp increase, which uses the adjective instead.
3Correct the error: The number of users peaked to 94 per cent in 2020.
Peaked at. You peak at a figure and rise to one. Wrong prepositions in this task are noticed immediately because they repeat.
4Which sentence compares the two countries correctly?
Higher than that in Country B. The first compares access with a country rather than with access. That stands in for the repeated noun and makes the comparison match.
5The graph covers 1990 to 2005. Which tense should the body paragraphs use?
Past simple. The period is closed, so it takes the past simple. Use the present perfect only when the data runs up to the present day.
6Which sentence does not belong in a Task 1 answer?
The explanation. The graph shows what happened, not why. Speculating about causes adds nothing the task asks for and costs marks under Task Achievement.
That is the harder half of this task, and it is invisible from inside your own answer. An answer can be accurate in every sentence and still score Band 6 because it described everything instead of choosing what mattered.
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Choosing the better sentence from four is not the same as producing one under time with a chart in front of you.
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At least 150 words, and around 170 to 190 in practice. Going far beyond that eats into Task 2, which carries twice the marks.
Yes. An answer with no overview cannot score above Band 5 on Task Achievement, however accurate the rest of it is.
No. The overview describes the overall pattern. Figures belong in the body paragraphs where they support a specific point.
The crossing point is a significant feature and is worth naming: say when one overtook the other, and give the figure at that point.
No. The graph does not contain that information, so any explanation is speculation and is not credited.
Full membership
Task Achievement rewards choosing the significant features and reporting them accurately. Nobody can judge their own selection, because the things you left out are exactly the things you did not notice.
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