The chart below shows the number of men and women in further education in Britain in three periods and whether they were studying fulltime or part-time.
Sample Response
The bar chart illustrates how many men and womenmales and females studiedhave studied in full-time and part-time education in the following periodsyears: 1970/71, 1980/81 and 1990/911970 to 1971, 1980 to 1981 and 1990 to 1991. It is clear that in all three time periods more people of both sexes were involved in part-time education than fulltime. Overall the number of men in fulltime education rose from approximately 100 thousand to 200 thousand, whereas the number of men in part-time education was lower in the early nineties than twenty years earlier. For womenAs far as women are concerned, the numbers increased in both modes of studyboth sectors of education. The number of fullpart-time female students increased dramatically from 700 thousand to 1.12 million in the 20-year periodtwenty year period. The numberamount of women in part-time education rosefulltime education went up more gradually from about 50 thousand in 1970/71 to 200 thousand in 1990/91from 100 thousand in 1971 to just over 200 thousand in 1991. This increase wasThis was similar to the increasesimilar the increase for part-time male studentsfulltime male students. To sum up, the number of women in both sectors increased significantly while it seems that the rate of men entering part-time education decreased a little and was fluctuating.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response is generally clear and uses a reasonable range of language to describe changes over time. However, it reverses the chart’s full-time and part-time categories, so nearly all central comparisons and figures are attached to the wrong mode of study, substantially weakening task fulfilment. The highest priority is to verify the legend before planning and then organise accurate male and female comparisons in separate, clearly developed paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response identifies several numerical trends, but it reverses the full-time and part-time series and therefore misreports the chart's main features.
Read the legend first and relabel every comparison correctly: the blue full-time figures are much larger, while the red part-time figures are lower.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report has a broadly logical progression from an overview to male and female trends, although repetition and one-paragraph presentation weaken the organisation.
Create a distinct overview and group the detailed comparisons into focused paragraphs, avoiding a repetitive concluding summary.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is sufficiently varied for describing quantities and trends, but several collocations are imprecise or awkward.
Use accurate expressions such as “the number of women,” “a similar increase to,” and “male participation” rather than “the amount of women” or “the rate of men entering.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses both simple and complex sentences with generally clear meaning, though several grammatical errors remain noticeable.
Correct missing comparison structures and tense choices, especially “This was similar to the increase” and simple past forms for completed historical periods.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below shows the number of men and women in further education in Britain in three periods and whether they were studying fulltime or part-time.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.