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 price of a litre of petrol in six countries in 2023.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | Price |
|---|---|
| Norway | 2.3 |
| UK | 1.9 |
| Germany | 1.9 |
| USA | 1 |
| Kazakhstan | 0.5 |
| Iran | 0.03 |
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
Your answer stays on this page only. Copy it before you leave.
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 compares the price of a litre of petrol in six countries in 2023.
Overall, petrol was far more expensive in the European countries than elsewhere. Norway was the most costly and Iran by far the cheapest, with a difference of more than two dollars between them.
Norway had the highest price, at $2.30 per litre. The UK and Germany were next, with identical prices of $1.90, which was $0.40 below the Norwegian figure. These three countries were clearly the most expensive in the chart.
Prices were much lower in the remaining three. Petrol in the USA cost $1 per litre, less than half of the Norwegian price. Kazakhstan was cheaper still, at just $0.50, which was about a quarter of the UK and German prices and half of the American figure.
Iran stood out from every other country, with a price of only $0.03 per litre. This was a tiny fraction of the Norwegian price, which was more than seventy times higher, and it was also far lower than the Kazakh figure, which was already the second lowest in the chart.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| petrol price | cost of fuel |
| per litre | for each litre |
| the most expensive | having the highest price |
| virtually free | almost no cost |
| an identical price | exactly the same cost |
| vary widely | differ greatly |
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