The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in millions) of telephone calls in Finland, divided into three categories, from 1995 – 2004.
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Sample Response
The given bar graph shows data on the three types of calls made by Finnish citizens from 1995 to 2004. As the graph showsAs is given on the graph, most FinnishFinish citizens made local landline calls while the mobile phone useusages increased over timeover the time. Initially, in 1995, Finnish people made 12000 million minutes of local landline calls while the national & international calling time was half of that. About 500 million minutes of mobile callsVery few mobile calls were made in thatthis year. But over time the mobile calling time increased steadily and reached to about 8000 million minutes in 2003. Local landline callsThe local calling was the largest call category throughout the periodmost popular way of calling throughout the period but after peaking in 2001, its total declinedafter 2001, this way of calling kept decreasing while totals rose forwith the popularity of mobile phones and national & international calling. Mobile call minutes increased moreMobile phone calling increased more compared to the other two ways of calling and the trends showshows that over time the local landline useusages declined while the other two categories increasedother two ways of calling increased. In summary, local landline calling in Finland is higher than mobile and national & international calling throughout the given period and total mobile phone calling time had increased more quickly than other two ways of calling.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response’s strongest feature is its clear identification of local landline calls as the largest category and mobile calls as the fastest-growing one. Its main limitation is incomplete trend coverage: it omits the substantial rise and 2001 peak in local calls, gives few figures for national and international calls, and introduces an unsupported causal explanation. Prioritise describing each category’s full trajectory with accurate peak and endpoint values.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main overall trends are identified and some starting and later values are accurate, but the local-call peak and much of the national and international series are underdeveloped.
Report local calls rising to about 17,000 million minutes in 2001 before falling, and quantify both steadily growing categories at the end.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response follows a generally understandable category-based progression, but one continuous paragraph and repeated overview points create redundancy.
Use a separate overview, then group local calls in one detail paragraph and the two rising categories in another.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for trend description, but spelling and collocational errors such as ‘Finish’, ‘phone usages’, ‘reached to’, and ‘ways of calling’ recur.
Use precise forms such as ‘Finnish’, ‘mobile-phone use’, ‘reached’, and ‘call categories’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Simple and complex sentences are both used, but errors in agreement, articles, tense, plurals, and prepositions occur frequently.
Check subject–verb agreement and keep past tense consistent when describing the completed 1995–2004 period.