Pick out the main features of this bar chart for your overview, write your report on a 20-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The chart below shows the average length of daily commute by five modes of transport in one city.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | Minutes |
|---|---|
| Walking | 14 |
| Cycling | 22 |
| Bus | 48 |
| Train | 62 |
| Car | 36 |
GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.
An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:
Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.
0 words of 150 minimum
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Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.
The bar chart shows the average length of the daily commute in minutes by five modes of transport in one city.
Overall, public transport took the longest, and the train was the slowest of all, whereas walking and cycling involved the shortest journeys. The car lay between these two extremes.
Rail commuters spent an average of 62 minutes travelling each day, the longest time of any mode. Bus users came next, at 48 minutes, which was 14 minutes less than train passengers. Together, these two forms of public transport were clearly the most time-consuming ways of getting to work.
Car journeys averaged 36 minutes, 26 minutes shorter than the train and 12 minutes shorter than the bus. Cycling took 22 minutes on average, which was less than two-thirds of the time spent driving.
Walking was the quickest mode, at only 14 minutes. This was 8 minutes less than cycling and less than a quarter of the time that rail commuters spent travelling each day. Train journeys were therefore more than four times as long as walking trips.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| daily commute | the journey to and from work each day |
| average journey time | typical travelling time |
| take the longest | require the most time |
| the shortest | the least |
| minutes per day | time measure per day |
| in between | at an intermediate level |
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