The table below shows the salaries of secondary/high school teachers in 2009.
Sample Response
The table compares secondary and high school teachers’ salaries in five countries in 2009.
Overall, while teachers in Luxembourg were the best-paidmost well-paid, teachers infrom Australia were the lowest-paid. In addition, the amount of time it took for a teacher in Denmark to earn the maximum salary was much faster than most other countries.
Secondary and high school teachers in Luxembourg were paid a starting salary of $80,000 a year, while the figure for teachers in Denmark was significantly lower, at $45,000. Additionally, the starting salary for an inexperienced teacher in other countries stood at around $30,000.
However, teachers with 15 years of experienceat least 15 years of experience in Luxembourg earned $119,000earned up to $119,000 a year, while teachers in Denmark and Japan with the same level of experience earnedonly made salaries of $54,000 and $65,000 respectively. Meanwhile, Australian and Korean teachers with 15 years’ experiencewith at least 15 years’ experience were paid the lowest salaries, at $48,000 a year. Also worth noting is that it only took teachers in Australia and Denmark less than 10 years to receive their maximum salary, while teachers in the other countries had to wait for at least 30 years.
Why this response received Band 8.5
The response is highly effective: it presents a clear overview, selects almost all of the decisive comparisons, and uses fluent, well-controlled language. Its main limitation is that the maximum-salary column is discussed mainly through the years needed to reach it, leaving several maximum figures unstated. The highest-priority improvement is to include one concise comparison of those maximum salaries while preserving the current clarity and economy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The overview and supporting comparisons are accurate and well selected, though several maximum-salary figures are omitted.
Add a concise comparison of the maximum salaries, especially Japan and Korea, to cover the table more fully.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically organised into a clear overview and focused detail paragraphs with smooth progression.
Use contrast markers only where the relationship is genuinely contrastive, particularly at the start of the final paragraph.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and natural overall, with strong control of salary and comparison language.
Prefer the more idiomatic 'highest-paid' to 'most well-paid' for maximum precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of complex structures is handled accurately, with only minor awkwardness in isolated comparisons.
Refine comparative phrasing such as the time taken being 'shorter' rather than 'faster'.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The table below shows the salaries of secondary/high school teachers in 2009.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.