The figure shows the results of a survey of 1000 adolescents in five different countries. The participants were asked at what age they believed certain rights and responsibilities should be granted to young people.
Sample Response
The diagram describes survey resultsa survey result of 1000 teenagers on the ages at whichabout at what age they should be granted particular rights and responsibilitiesfollow particular rights and responsibilities. The survey was conductedhas been conducted among adolescents in five countriesin five different nationalities on three areas:on three categories such as marriage, voting, and criminal responsibility. The survey result shows that American and Mexican participants have likely the same opinion. American respondents believedAmericans agreed that marriage and voting rightsright should be given at the same age (18) while criminal responsibility should begin earlierbut criminal responsibility at a younger age. American teenagers believed that criminal responsibility should begin at about age 12should be given at about twelve years old. British and Japanese adolescents agreed that the right to marryrights of marriage should be granted at an older age than the other responsibilitiesthan other subjects. Afterwards, teenagers in the UK agreed that certain responsibilities should be granted within 18 years old but Japanese believe those should be suitable for over 18 years old. Only Egyptians agreed that voting should be granted at an older age than other categories. In short, the surveyed adolescents in the five countriesall teenagers from five different countries expressed different viewshave a different agreement about the ages at which young people should receive these rights and responsibilitiesof what age should the young people be granted on certain rights. Only Japanese believe that they should get those rights at above 18 years old while others within 18 years old.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response makes several relevant comparisons, especially for the USA and the older marriage ages preferred in the UK and Japan. Its main limitation is incomplete and inaccurate synthesis: Japan’s criminal-responsibility age is 18 rather than above 18, the UK marriage age is above 18, and Mexico receives little detail. Prioritise reporting the three values for each country systematically before drawing an overall cross-country conclusion.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
Several country patterns are correctly identified, but coverage is uneven and the final generalisation about ages above or below 18 is inaccurate.
Record all three values for each country and base the overview on supported patterns such as marriage usually receiving the highest age.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response follows a broadly country-based sequence, but unclear references and a contradictory conclusion weaken overall progression.
Group countries by shared patterns and place a precise overview before the supporting country comparisons.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is sufficient to address the topic, but frequent imprecise combinations such as ‘follow rights’ and ‘different agreement’ obscure meaning.
Use standard expressions including ‘grant rights’, ‘age of criminal responsibility’, ‘survey respondents’, and ‘preferred age’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Frequent problems with word order, articles, tense, agreement, and indirect-question structures make several sentences difficult to follow.
Use direct comparison sentences with one country as the subject and avoid embedded questions such as ‘about at what age’.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The figure shows the results of a survey of 1000 adolescents in five different countries. The participants were asked at what age they believed certain rights and responsibilities should be granted to young people.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.