The graph below shows four countries of residence of overseas students in Australia.
Sample Response
At athe glance, the line graph showsdescribes the number of international students from four4 countries (Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore) in Australia over an 18-year periodin Australia within 18 years.
As can be seen vividly, that among all the international students from all of the countries increased significantly with various patterns for each country. Hong Kong, Singapore and IndonesiaHong Kong, Singapore, as well as Indonesia, began at the same levelstarted at the same point in 1982 with no recordeddelegated students. However, Indonesia and Singapore increased significantly, reachingHong Kong and Singapore improved significantly reaching almost 25,000 and 18,000 respectively in 1998 while Indonesia increased unevenlyun-smoothly with plateausoccurring stagnancy from 1988 to 1989 and between 1992 and 1995.
Meanwhile, Malaysia beganMalaysian students began with approximately 4,000 students and increased gradually to 18,000 students in 1998. Moreover, from 1998 to 2000, only Singapore continued to riseonly Singapore continued the increase to about 20,000 studentsmostly 20,000 students while the other countries fluctuatedthe others had a fluctuating trend. Furthermore, in 1998, except Hong Kong stood at the same level, 18,000 students.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response’s clearest strength is its attempt to cover all four countries and identify their common upward direction over the period. However, several series are misidentified—most notably the roughly 25,000 peak belongs to Indonesia rather than Hong Kong—and the final comparison is unclear, so the report does not reliably represent the graph. Prioritise matching each line to its legend and selecting a clear overview with accurate end-point comparisons.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response addresses all four countries and notes overall growth, but several key values and trends are assigned to the wrong series and the overview lacks the leading pattern.
Trace each line from the legend before writing, then highlight Indonesia’s highest peak and the contrasting movements from 1998 to 2000 with accurate figures.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphing and linking words provide a basic progression, but unclear sequencing and a confusing final sentence weaken the report’s coherence.
Use one overview followed by two detail paragraphs grouped by similar trends, and remove any sentence whose comparison is not explicit.
Lexical Resource
There is some topic vocabulary for trends, but frequent unsuitable choices such as “delegated students,” “improved,” and “un-smoothly” reduce precision.
Use standard graph language such as student numbers, rose, levelled off, fluctuated, peaked, and fell.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts complex sentences, but frequent problems with sentence structure, articles, agreement, and clause formation sometimes obscure meaning.
Build shorter complete comparison sentences with a clear subject and verb, then check each clause for agreement and correct prepositions.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graph below shows four countries of residence of overseas students in Australia.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.