The chart below shows the results of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities.

Same questionCompare 6 different answers (Band 8–9)

Sample Response

1

The bar chart compares the proportions of residents in five Australian cities who boughtwho purchased fresh coffee, bought instant coffee, or went to a café for coffee or teavisited a café during the previous four weeks.

2

Overall, visiting a café was the most popular choice in four of the five cities, whereas buying fresh coffee generally recorded the lowest percentages. Adelaide was the only city where instant coffee purchases were marginally higherclearly more prevalent than café visits.

3

Sydney and Melbourne showed broadly similar patterns. In both cities, going to a café was the most common habitdominant category, accounting for just over 60% of residents in Sydney and approximately 64% in Melbourne. Fresh coffee purchases were considerably lower, at around 44% and 42%, respectively, respectively at around 44% and 42% respectively. Instant coffee was also less popular than visiting cafés in both cities, although the figure for Melbourne, at about 48%, was slightly higher than that for Sydney, at roughly 46%.

4

Turning to the remaining three cities, theyThe other three cities showed somewhat different patterns. Hobart recorded a comparable peak of café visitors, at approximately 63%, compared with about 54% who bought instant coffee and 38% who purchased fresh coffee. In Brisbane, café visits were also the leading choice, at around 55%, followed closely by instant coffee at about 53%, while fresh coffee stood at only around 34%. Adelaide was the exception: approximately half of its residents bought instant coffee, only slightly higher than the roughly 49% who visited caféssubstantially higher than the roughly 39% who visited cafés , while only about one-third purchased fresh coffee.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 8.5

The response provides an exceptionally clear summary of the data, featuring a well-crafted overview and detailed, accurate comparisons across all five cities. Ideas are logically grouped with varied, sophisticated vocabulary throughout the essay. The main area for improvement is careful proofreading to eliminate minor slip-ups, such as phrase repetition, which slightly impact structural perfection.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TA

Task Achievement

9.0
Scoring rule

The response fully satisfies the task requirements by identifying key trends in a clear overview and providing precise data comparisons for all cities.

Next step

Maintain this thorough approach to selecting key features and accurate data points in future responses.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

8.0
Scoring rule

Information is logically organized into well-structured paragraphs, resulting in seamless progression across key categories.

Next step

Ensure transitions between comparative data points remain varied and avoid accidental repetition of phrase structures.

LR

Lexical Resource

9.0
Scoring rule

A wide range of natural and precise vocabulary is used with complete flexibility and accuracy.

Next step

Continue utilizing precise lexical choices appropriate for academic data descriptions.

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

8.0
Scoring rule

A wide variety of sentence structures is produced accurately, though a minor repetition error slightly affects perfect control.

Next step

Proofread carefully to catch and remove accidental repetitions or editing slips before finalizing the text.

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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

The chart below shows the results of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities.

Your response

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20:00

Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.