Pick out the main features of this table 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 table below shows annual tuition fees and living costs for international students in four countries.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Country | Tuition fees | Living costs | Students on scholarships (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 32,000 | 14,000 | 6 |
| UK | 24,000 | 15,000 | 11 |
| Germany | 500 | 11,000 | 38 |
| Australia | 27,000 | 17,000 | 9 |
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 table compares tuition fees, living costs and the proportion of students on scholarships in four countries.
Overall, Germany was by far the cheapest destination for international students and offered scholarships to the highest proportion of them. The other three countries all charged high fees.
The USA had the highest tuition fees, at $32,000 per year, followed by Australia at $27,000 and the UK at $24,000. Germany's fees were extremely low by comparison, at just $500. Living costs varied less. They were highest in Australia, at $17,000, and also high in the UK, at $15,000 and the USA, at $14,000, while Germany was cheapest at $11,000.
Combining fees and living costs, a year of study in the USA cost $46,000 and in Australia $44,000, compared with $39,000 in the UK and only $11,500 in Germany.
Scholarships were most common in Germany, with 38% of students receiving one. In the UK the figure was 11%, in Australia 9% and in the USA only 6%, so the most expensive country was also the one with the fewest scholarships.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| tuition fees | payment for teaching |
| living costs | money for housing and food |
| scholarship | funded place at university |
| by far the lowest | much lower than the rest |
| charge | ask for payment |
| the highest | the greatest |
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.