Pick out the main features of this pie 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 pie charts below show how adults learned new skills in 2010 and 2023.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 2010 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Classroom | 44% | 18% |
| Online courses | 8% | 30% |
| Videos | 5% | 24% |
| Books | 18% | 6% |
| On the job | 25% | 22% |
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 pie charts compare the ways in which adults learned new skills in 2010 and 2023.
Overall, there was a dramatic move away from traditional methods towards digital learning. Classroom study, which had been the leading method in 2010, was replaced by online courses in 2023.
In 2010 classroom learning was the most popular approach, used by 44% of adults, followed by learning on the job with 25% and learning from books with 18%. Online courses and videos were of marginal importance, at 8% and 5% respectively. By 2023 the classroom share had fallen to 18%, less than half of its earlier level, and books had declined from 18% to just 6%.
Online methods, in contrast, expanded rapidly. Online courses rose from 8% to 30%, making them the largest category, while videos increased almost fivefold, from 5% to 24%. Together, these two digital methods accounted for 54% of the total in 2023, compared with 13% in 2010.
Learning on the job was the most stable method, falling only slightly, from 25% to 22%, and it was the third most common in 2023.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| acquire new skills | learn abilities |
| online courses | study over the internet |
| classroom learning | face-to-face teaching |
| almost fourfold | nearly four times |
| barely change | stay almost the same |
| shift towards | move in the direction of |
Answer random Part 1, 2 and 3 questions on an exam timer.
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