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 number of app downloads in four categories in 2018 and 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 2018 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Games | 920 | 1,050 |
| Social | 540 | 610 |
| Education | 120 | 310 |
| Health | 60 | 230 |
| Finance | 90 | 260 |
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 number of app downloads, in millions, in five categories in 2018 and 2022.
Overall, downloads rose in every category, and games and social apps remained the most popular. However, the fastest growth took place in the smaller categories, especially health.
Games were downloaded 920 million times in 2018 and 1,050 million times in 2022, an increase of 130 million. Social apps also grew, from 540 million to 610 million. Despite these gains, the rise in both categories was modest in percentage terms, at well under 20%.
The three smaller categories grew much more rapidly. Education downloads climbed from 120 million to 310 million, which was more than two and a half times the 2018 figure. Finance apps rose from 90 million to 260 million, nearly tripling. The most striking change was in health, where downloads rose from 60 million in 2018 to 230 million in 2022, almost four times as many. By 2022, health apps were still far less popular than games, but they had moved much closer to education and finance.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| app downloads | number of times apps are installed |
| the most downloaded | installed the most |
| almost quadruple | nearly four times |
| grow proportionally | increase relative to starting figure |
| modest growth | small increase |
| category | group of similar things |
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.