Guides / Task 1 charts and diagrams
IELTS Task 1 Topics: What Actually Comes Up, and How to Prepare for Each
Search for Task 1 topics and you get a list of subjects: population, transport, energy, tourism. That list is close to useless. The subject changes every exam and you cannot revise it.
What repeats is the shape of the visual. Academic Task 1 gives you a line graph, a bar chart, a pie chart, a table, a process diagram, a map, or two of these together. There are seven families and you can prepare all seven. The subject is only the vocabulary you drop into a sentence you already know how to build.
Academic Task 1 asks you to describe visual information in at least 150 words in about 20 minutes. General Training Task 1 is a letter instead, and the second half of this guide covers it.
Why the family matters more than the subject
Every Task 1 question is marked on four criteria: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Task Achievement is the one the family controls. It asks whether you selected the important information and reported it accurately, and what counts as important is different in each family.
In a line graph the important thing is change over time. In a pie chart it is proportion. In a map it is what was added, removed or moved. A candidate who writes a strong line graph paragraph under a map question loses marks for Task Achievement while using perfectly good English.
This is also where the overview sits. The overview is one or two sentences naming the biggest patterns, with no numbers in them. Task Achievement expects it in every Academic Task 1 answer, and a missing overview is the most common reason a fluent answer stops below band 6.
The seven families, with a worked opening
Each opening below is two sentences: a paraphrase of the question, then the overview. Read them as patterns rather than as phrases to memorise, because a memorised phrase dropped onto a question it does not fit reads as memorised to a marker.
Line graph
The question is change over time. Look first at the overall direction, then at the largest gap between lines.
The line graph shows how much electricity four European countries generated from wind power between 2000 and 2020. Overall, every country produced far more wind electricity by the end of the period than at the start, although Germany remained well ahead of the other three throughout.
Bar chart
The question is comparison between groups. Name the highest and lowest categories before any figure.
The bar chart compares the average weekly spending on food, housing and leisure in five countries in 2019. Overall, housing took the largest share of spending in every country, while leisure took the smallest in all but one.
Pie chart
The question is proportion. Group the small slices rather than listing them one by one.
The two pie charts show how households in one city disposed of their waste in 1995 and in 2020. Overall, the proportion sent to landfill fell sharply over the period, and recycling grew to become the largest single method.
Table
The question is comparison across two dimensions at once. Choose one dimension to organise the answer, then hold to it.
The table gives the number of international students enrolled in four subject areas at three universities in 2021. Overall, business attracted the most students at every university, and the smallest programme at each was engineering.
Process diagram
The question is sequence. Count the stages, name the first and last, and use the passive voice where no person is named.
The diagram illustrates how glass bottles are collected and recycled into new containers. Overall, the process has seven stages, beginning with the collection of used bottles and ending with the delivery of new ones to shops.
Map
The question is change to a place. Fix the compass direction and the landmark that did not move, then describe what did.
The two maps show the centre of the town of Ashford in 1980 and today. Overall, the area changed from a largely residential district into a commercial one, and the only feature that remained in place was the railway station in the north.
Mixed charts
Two visuals appear together, usually a chart and a table or two charts of different types. Write one body paragraph for each, and make the overview cover both.
The chart and table show the number of visitors to a national park and the reasons they gave for visiting, between 2010 and 2020. Overall, visitor numbers rose steadily across the decade, and walking was the most common reason in every year recorded.
What each family rewards, at a glance
| Family | What Task Achievement wants | Language it rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Line graph | Direction of change, peaks and troughs | rose steadily, fell sharply, levelled off, peaked at |
| Bar chart | Highest and lowest, gaps between groups | twice as many as, marginally higher, the smallest share |
| Pie chart | Proportion, and how proportions shifted | accounted for, made up, a quarter of, the remainder |
| Table | One organising dimension, held consistently | compared with, whereas, in contrast, respectively |
| Process | Order, and what feeds into what | first, subsequently, once this is complete, is then transferred |
| Map | What appeared, disappeared, expanded, moved | was demolished, was replaced by, to the north of, now stands |
| Mixed | Both visuals covered, linked in the overview | while, correspondingly, a similar pattern appears in |
General Training Task 1 topics
General Training candidates write a letter, and here the topic list is genuinely useful, because letter situations do repeat. The recurring ones are complaints about a product or service, requests to a landlord or neighbour, applications and enquiries, apologies and explanations to a friend or colleague, thanks, and invitations.
What varies is the register, meaning how formal the language is. There are three: formal to someone you have never met, semi-formal to someone you know in a working relationship, and informal to a friend. Register is marked under Lexical Resource, and mixing two registers in one letter is the fastest way to lose marks there. Decide the register from the person, not the subject, before you write a word.
What to do this week
Pick one family a day and write only the first two sentences: the paraphrase and the overview. Two sentences takes four minutes, so you can do three questions in the time one full answer costs. The opening is where Task Achievement is won or lost, and it is the part most candidates practise least because they always start at the beginning and run out of time before they reach the second one.
Once the openings feel automatic, write three full answers under a real clock, one line graph, one map and one process, since those three cover the widest range of sentence patterns.
Then get the answers marked. Writing without feedback repeats whatever you already do. You can paste a full Task 1 answer into Bandly with its chart and get an estimated band for each of the four criteria, with the sentences that drove each estimate highlighted, which tells you whether your overview is doing its job or whether you are describing detail the question did not ask for. The bands are machine estimates, not a marked exam paper, but they point at the same sentences a teacher would circle.
Find out what this essay would score
Paste your own answer and Bandly returns an estimated band for each of the four criteria, with the sentences that pulled the score down. Under a cent an essay, about six seconds.
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