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 pupils with access to computers at home and at school in four countries.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | At home | At school |
|---|---|---|
| Finland | 98% | 95% |
| Chile | 72% | 85% |
| Turkey | 60% | 52% |
| Indonesia | 38% | 44% |
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 compares the percentage of pupils who had computer access at home and at school in Finland, Chile, Turkey and Indonesia.
Overall, access was highest in Finland and lowest in Indonesia, and the proportion of pupils with a computer fell steadily from the first country to the last. Home access exceeded school access in Finland and Turkey, but the reverse was true in Chile and Indonesia.
Finland had almost universal access, with 98% of pupils having a computer at home and 95% at school. Chile followed, with 72% of pupils having one at home and a higher figure of 85% at school, a difference of 13 percentage points, which was the largest gap in the chart.
In Turkey, 60% of pupils had a computer at home, compared with 52% at school. Indonesia recorded the lowest levels, with only 38% of pupils having a home computer and 44% having one at school. Indonesian pupils were therefore only slightly more likely to use a computer at school, and less than half as many Indonesian pupils had home access as their Finnish counterparts did.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| computer access | ability to use a computer |
| at home | in the household |
| at school | in an educational setting |
| the opposite is true | the reverse applies |
| higher than | greater than |
| a gap of | a difference of |
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