Academic Writing Task 1 · bar chart

Student involvement in three different sports across three school grades

The graph below shows the student involvement in three sports in a school based on which grades they are studying in.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Student involvement in different sports (%)

Soccer
Cricket
Basketball

View the data

	Class VIII	Class IX	Class X
Soccer	25	30	32
Cricket	55	45	40
Basketball	20	25	28

Chart redrawn by BandLadder from the data in the original IELTS practice task. Many IELTS practice tasks come from the Cambridge IELTS series (Cambridge University Press & Assessment); all rights in the original tasks remain with their owners.

Band 8 sample answer

The bar chart illustrates the percentage of student participation in three distinct sports—soccer, cricket, and basketball—among pupils in Class VIII, Class IX, and Class X.

Overall, cricket consistently attracts the highest level of involvement across all three grades, despite a downward trend in its popularity. Conversely, participation in both soccer and basketball increases steadily as students move into higher grades.

Regarding cricket, it is the dominant sport in Class VIII with 55% involvement. However, this figure drops to 45% in Class IX and further decreases to 40% by Class X. Despite this decline, it remains the most favoured activity in all three groups.

In contrast, soccer and basketball show growth. Soccer participation rises from 25% in Class VIII to 30% in Class IX, reaching a peak of 32% in Class X. Similarly, basketball involvement starts at 20% for the youngest group, climbs to 25% in Class IX, and finishes at 28% for Class X students. By the final year, the gap between the popularity of the three sports narrows significantly compared to the substantial disparity observed in Class VIII.

179 words. Every figure in the answer comes from the chart above.

How to write about bar charts

Compare the biggest and smallest bars before anything else.
If the bars show years, describe change; if they show places, describe rank.
Round sensibly and say 'just over' or 'nearly' rather than guessing decimals.

dominant: having the most influence or being most common
downward trend: a general movement or development towards lower levels
steady: developing or changing in a constant, regular way
disparity: a great difference between two or more things
participation: the act of taking part in an activity
narrows: becomes smaller in range or amount over time

Write your own report and get a band

Take a timed Academic writing test and get a band for task achievement, coherence, vocabulary and grammar, with the sentences to fix.

Practise IELTS Academic writing

On your phone? Get the BandLadder app.

Frequently asked questions

What should the overview say?

Cricket is the most popular sport across all three grades, although its popularity declines as students progress, while interest in soccer and basketball shows a steady upward trend.

How long should an IELTS Task 1 answer be?

At least 150 words; 170 to 200 is the safe range. Spend about 20 minutes on it and leave 40 for Task 2, which carries twice the marks.

How do I describe bar charts?

Compare the biggest and smallest bars before anything else. If the bars show years, describe change; if they show places, describe rank. Round sensibly and say 'just over' or 'nearly' rather than guessing decimals.