Pick out the main features of this line graph 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 graph below shows the average broadband download speed in three countries between 2010 and 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | Singapore | Estonia | Egypt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 20 | 10 | 1 |
| 2012 | 40 | 22 | 2 |
| 2014 | 75 | 35 | 3 |
| 2016 | 110 | 60 | 5 |
| 2018 | 180 | 85 | 8 |
| 2020 | 230 | 110 | 12 |
| 2022 | 260 | 140 | 20 |
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 line graph compares average broadband download speeds in Singapore, Estonia and Egypt between 2010 and 2022, measured in megabits per second.
Overall, speeds increased in all three countries, but the gaps between them grew. Singapore was consistently the fastest, while Egypt remained far behind despite a twentyfold rise.
Singapore began at 20 Mbps in 2010 and doubled to 40 Mbps by 2012. It then increased rapidly to 75 Mbps in 2014 and 110 Mbps in 2016, and continued to climb to 180 Mbps in 2018 and 230 Mbps in 2020, ending at 260 Mbps in 2022.
Estonia followed the same pattern at a lower level. Its speed was only 10 Mbps in 2010, half the Singaporean figure, and rose to 22 Mbps in 2012 and 35 Mbps in 2014. It then reached 60 Mbps in 2016 and 85 Mbps in 2018, before ending with 110 Mbps in 2020 and 140 Mbps in 2022.
Egypt started at a mere 1 Mbps and improved slowly, with 2 Mbps in 2012, 3 Mbps in 2014 and 5 Mbps in 2016. Its speed then rose to 8 Mbps in 2018 and 12 Mbps in 2020, reaching 20 Mbps in 2022.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| download speed | how fast data is received |
| rise exponentially | grow at an ever-faster rate |
| remain far behind | stay much lower |
| fastest throughout | highest at every point |
| a thirteen-fold increase | growth to thirteen times |
| the gap widened | the difference became bigger |
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