The charts below show the main reasons why students chose a particular university in the UK, in 1997 and 2007.
Sample Response
The chart compares the primary reasons why students chose specific universities in the United Kingdom in two years, 1997 and 2007.
A general overview of the data suggests that the suitability of degree courses remained the main consideration throughout the period. However, there was a notable shift towards considering proximity to the parental home as a deciding factor, while interest in universities’ social and sports facilities experienced a sharp decline.
A more detailed examination reveals that the proportion of students seeking proximity to parental homes doubled from 10 to 22%. In contrast, the importance given to good sports and social activities fell from 19 to just 6%.
Meanwhile, the emphasis on quality of teaching and resources showed marginal increases that ranged between 15 and 21% for both categories, suggesting a steady but not pivotal interest among students. The most popular reason, the suitability of degree courses, remained relatively stable with a slight increase from 35 to 37%.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use plural noun Original: chart Suggested revision: charts Why it matters: The visual contains two pie charts, so the plural form is required.
- 2. Keep the task scope Original: specific universities Suggested revision: a particular university Why it matters: The charts concern reasons for choosing one particular university rather than several universities.
- 3. Make overview direct Original: A general overview of the data suggests that Suggested revision: Overall, Why it matters: A direct overview marker is clearer and more concise here.
- 4. Match the chart label Original: universities’ social and sports facilities Suggested revision: the university’s sports and social activities Why it matters: The chart refers to one university and labels this reason as sports and social activities.
- 5. Use direct phrasing Original: experienced a sharp decline Suggested revision: declined sharply Why it matters: The direct verb is more concise and natural for describing a falling proportion.
- 6. Clarify the reason Original: seeking proximity to parental homes Suggested revision: choosing the university because of its proximity to their parental home Why it matters: The revision clearly links proximity to the students' choice of university.
- 7. Describe increase accurately Original: doubled from 10 to 22% Suggested revision: more than doubled from 10% to 22% Why it matters: An increase from 10% to 22% is slightly more than a doubling.
- 8. Sentence rewrite Original: Meanwhile, the emphasis on quality of teaching and resources showed marginal increases that ranged between 15 and 21% for both categories, suggesting a steady but not pivotal interest among students. Suggested revision: Meanwhile, the proportion choosing the university for its quality of teaching rose from 15% to 18%, while the figure for quality of resources fell from 21% to 17%. Why it matters: The chart shows that teaching increased slightly whereas resources decreased, so the two categories should not be grouped as rises.
Suggested Rewrites
- chart charts
- specific universities a particular university
- A general overview of the data suggests that Overall,
- universities’ social and sports facilities the university’s sports and social activities
- experienced a sharp decline declined sharply
- seeking proximity to parental homes choosing the university because of its proximity to their parental home
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response is concise, well organised, and uses flexible language to highlight the dominant reason and the largest changes clearly. Its main limitation is a factual misreading: quality of resources fell from 21% to 17%, although the report groups it with teaching as an increase. Correct that comparison and state the two smaller changes separately to make the coverage fully accurate and precise.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The report presents a strong overview and accurately covers most major comparisons, but it misreports the direction of change for quality of resources.
State separately that teaching rose from 15% to 18% while resources declined from 21% to 17%.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically sequenced, clearly paragraphised, and uses cohesive devices naturally to move from overview to detailed comparisons.
Keep the same structure while making the final detail paragraph contrast the two smaller changes more explicitly.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and well suited to comparative data, with effective phrases for stability, shifts, and proportional change.
Prefer singular wording such as a particular university and use neutral data description instead of interpretive phrasing such as pivotal interest.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentence structures is used accurately, and the response is consistently easy to read.
Maintain this control while checking noun reference and possessive choices for maximum precision in chart descriptions.
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 charts below show the main reasons why students chose a particular university in the UK, in 1997 and 2007.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.