The bar chart below gives information about four countries spending habits of shopping on consumer goods in 2012.
Sample Response
The vertical bar chart depicts the spending patterns of Belgians, Spaniards, Austrians and Brits on six commodities in 2012. Overall, Brits spent morespent higher amount onfor purchasing these goods while books, toys and cameras accounted for higher spending by these countriescost these nations higher than gaming consoles, outdoor gaming accessories and cosmetics did. As the data suggests, British consumers spent justBritish spend just over 155 thousand pound sterling on console games in 2012 while the other three nationsother three nations spent between 145 andto 150 thousand each. To buy outdoor sports equipment, British consumers spentEnglish disbursed roughly 156 thousand, close to the Spanish figurea close tie with that of Spaniards' spending. Austrians spent the lowest to have such accessories in this year. Moving further, Belgian and Austrian consumers spentpeople in Belgium and Austria purchased around 145 thousand poundspound's of cosmetics while this amount in Spain and Britain was roughly 10 and 15 thousand higher. It is worth noticing that Brits spent the highest amount to own these items in 2012 and their highest expenditure was ontheir greater ratio of expense accounted for purchasing toys and cameras. Books cost more than 160 thousand for British consumersto English while it was lowest for Belgians, somewhat 15 thousand less. These nations' spending onThese nations interest in owning toys and cameras showed a similar pattern and Austrians preferred spending onfor cameras more than they did for toys. British spend between 167 to 170 thousand for each of these two products and Austrian spent the least, approximately 145 thousand pound sterling.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response offers a useful overview and compares all six goods, correctly recognising Britain as the highest spender overall. However, it misidentifies Austria as the lowest spender on outdoor accessories and on toys and cameras, and recurring awkward phrasing reduces precision. Prioritise checking each country ranking against the chart, then edit nationality terms, verb forms, possessives, and spending collocations so the detailed comparisons are consistently accurate and natural.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response covers every product and gives an accurate overall trend, but it incorrectly names Austria rather than Belgium as the lowest spender in key comparisons.
Verify the lowest country for each product and report that Belgium is lowest for outdoor accessories, toys, and cameras.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information follows the chart's product order and comparisons generally progress clearly, although the single paragraph and some repetitive transitions weaken organisation.
Divide the details into two grouped body paragraphs and use topic-focused transitions instead of broad phrases such as moving further.
Lexical Resource
There is a reasonably wide range of consumer-spending vocabulary, but nationality labels and collocations such as cost these nations higher and greater ratio of expense are imprecise.
Use consistent country names and natural phrases such as spent more on, expenditure was highest, and the amount spent.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses both simple and complex forms, but agreement, tense, articles, possessives, and singular-plural errors are frequent.
Maintain past tense throughout and proofread forms such as the British spent, countries' interest, and pounds sterling.
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 bar chart below gives information about four countries spending habits of shopping on consumer goods in 2012.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.