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 health spending as a percentage of national income in six countries in 2000 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 2000 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 12.5% | 18.8% |
| Germany | 10% | 12.8% |
| Japan | 7.2% | 11% |
| Brazil | 8% | 10.3% |
| Turkey | 4.8% | 4.7% |
| Nigeria | 3.5% | 3.4% |
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 health spending as a percentage of national income in six countries in 2000 and 2020.
Overall, spending rose in four of the six countries, with the United States devoting the highest share at both dates. In contrast, the figures for Turkey and Nigeria were low and almost unchanged.
The USA spent 12.5% of its national income on health in 2000, and this climbed to 18.8% in 2020, an increase of more than six percentage points. Germany was second, but its spending grew less, from 10% to 12.8%. Japan showed a larger rise than Germany, going from 7.2% to 11%, and so it moved much closer to the German level.
Brazil's spending rose from 8% to 10.3%, a smaller change than in Japan, though it still increased by more than two percentage points.
Turkey and Nigeria were quite different. Turkey spent 4.8% in 2000 and 4.7% in 2020, a negligible fall, while Nigeria's figure went from 3.5% to 3.4%. These two countries consistently had the lowest health budgets, at around a quarter or less of the American level in 2020.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| health expenditure | money spent on healthcare |
| share of GDP | proportion of national income |
| rise markedly | increase noticeably |
| buck the trend | do the opposite of others |
| remain virtually unchanged | barely change |
| by a wide margin | by a large difference |
Answer random Part 1, 2 and 3 questions on an exam timer.
Average your four skill bands, rounded the way IELTS rounds them.
Compare an IELTS band with TOEFL, Duolingo and PTE scores and CEFR levels.
Look up the IELTS score a university asks for, with the source.