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 percentage of visitors to a city museum in each age group in 2005 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 2005 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Under 16 | 18% | 22% |
| 16–24 | 12% | 20% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 30% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 18% |
| 65+ | 17% | 10% |
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 percentage of visitors to a city museum in five age groups in 2005 and 2020.
Overall, the museum attracted a younger audience in 2020 than in 2005. The proportion of visitors rose among the three youngest groups and fell among the two oldest groups, with people aged 25–44 forming the largest group in both years.
Visitors aged 25–44 made up 28% of the total in 2005 and 30% in 2020, so their share changed little. By contrast, the 16–24 group showed the biggest rise, from 12% to 20%, while the under-16s increased from 18% to 22%. Taken together, these two groups accounted for 42% of visitors in 2020, compared with 30% in 2005.
The older groups moved in the opposite direction. People aged 45–64 represented the second-largest group in 2005, at 25%, but their share dropped to 18% by 2020. The proportion of visitors aged 65 or over fell from 17% to just 10%, the lowest figure in the 2020 data. The 65+ group was therefore the smallest category in 2020, whereas the 16–24 group had been the smallest in 2005.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| age group | people in a range of ages |
| account for | make up |
| the largest proportion | the biggest share |
| a younger audience | more young people |
| drop from X to Y | fall between figures |
| remain the largest | stay the biggest |
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