Many students are still worried about questions with more than one chart.
Here are some tips:
- If there are 2 charts, they often show different information. Don't worry about comparing them. Just do: introduction, overview, then one paragraph for each chart.
- If the units are different (e.g. one chart shows 'millions' and the other shows 'percentages'), you can't usually compare them.
- If the units are the same, you can probably compare the charts.
- If there are 3 or 4 charts, you can usually compare them.
To see an essay about 2 different charts click here (Cambridge IELTS 6, p98).
To see an essay about 4 related charts click here (Cambridge IELTS 7, p101).
RESPECTED SIR ,
MY NAME IS JIJI JOSEPH AND I AM FROM KERALA,INDIA.I HAVE BEEN USING YOUR BLOG SINCE DECEMBER2011 AND LAST MONTH I GOT MY IELTS RESULTS AND SURPRISINGLY I GOT 7 FOR ALL FOUR MODULES.THAT WAS MY 6TH ATTEMPT AND THIS TIME I FOLLOWED UR APPROACHES AND GUIDLINES COMPLETELY.I DIDNOT GET EVEN ANYONE TO CORRECT MY ESSAYS.I JUST READ ALL OF UR ESSAYS AND FOLLOWED ACCORDINGLY.....UR APPROACH TO IELTS IS SO DIFFERENT N CORRECT.SO M REALLY THANKFUL TO U.GOD BLESS U.MY PRAYERS ALWAYS WILL BE WITH YOU.
Posted by: JIJI | June 21, 2012 at 15:18
Hi Simon,
I am Hung, I would like to ask you whether this sentence is correct or not:
"More proportion of American people in 1970 than in 2000 got married".
Thank you so much.
Posted by: Hung | June 22, 2012 at 06:35
Hi,
Thank you for this informative post. I am also taking IELTS exam. Hopefully I can pass. This post is helpful for me. Since, about charts are among the difficult questions from the exam.
Posted by: TheIELTSSolution.com | June 22, 2012 at 11:10
Congratulations Jiji.
It's great to hear that my approach helped you to get four 7s. Thanks for letting me know.
...
Hi Hung,
I'll use your question in tomorrow's lesson.
Posted by: Simon | June 22, 2012 at 11:40
Hi Simon,
What should I do with a pie chart that doesn't give any specific proportion for each information. Shoul I estimate and state some appropriate one. Would you help me? Thank you so much in advance.
Posted by: Truc Quynh | June 23, 2012 at 07:35
Dear Simon,
I would have a question about tense of verbs in Writing Task 1. When there is a chart about the past, like "Cambridge IELTS book 7, page 101" that gives information about 1980 ..., would I use verbs with present tense, based on my teacher's advice in Iran?
Thank you.
Posted by: Behnam | June 23, 2012 at 09:02
Please help me with my essay below. Any comments are welcomed. I really appreciate Simon and this website.
This is my writing for two different unit bar chart at Cambridge IELTS 6, p98.
==========================================
The first bar chart describes how many people in the USA married and divorced from 1970 to 2000 in millions and the second bar chart demonstrates the ratio of four different marital status of American adults in 1970 and 2000.
In the first bar chart, the number of marriages stayed at 2.5 millions in 1970 and 1980. However, it gradually decreased below 2.5 millions in 1990 and reached 2 millions in 2000. On the other hand, the number of divorces over the same period remained the same (1 million) except for the increase to over 1 million in 1980.
In the second chart, the majority of American adults were married in 1970 and 2000. Among the four marital status such as 'never married', 'married', 'widowed' and 'divorced', the percentage of married people is the highest, reaching 70% and just below 60% in 1970 and 2000 respectively. The second highest percentage of marital status is 'never married', which is below 20% in both years. Both 'widowed' and 'divorced' remained below 1% in 1970 and 2000.
Posted by: Young | June 23, 2012 at 12:57
Hi Truc,
Pie charts always show proportions because the whole circle is always 100%, half is 50% etc. - you can use write about proportions just by looking at the chart.
...
Hi Behnam,
Personally, I would use the past simple if the years are in the past.
The present simple is sometimes used to describe statistics in the past, so your tutor isn't wrong. However, for IELTS I prefer not to do it that way.
Posted by: Simon | June 25, 2012 at 14:08
Hello, Simon,
I stuggle with using plural and singular in some circumstances. for example, "buying their first homes" or "their first home" "leaving their native countries" or "leaving their native country"? "wives have to rely on their husbands" or "wives have to rely on their husband"? similar in task one, "the chart shows proportions of spending on different items in 3 years" or "shows proportion of..."?
thanks a lot.
Posted by: Jessica | June 26, 2012 at 13:53
Hi Jessica,
Don't worry too much - both ways are usually fine, although I'd probably use plurals for the examples you gave.
Posted by: Simon | June 28, 2012 at 11:58
Dear Simon,
Thank you so much for this helpful website !
I have one question about these two paragraphs, are they band 9 ?
Posted by: Noor | July 05, 2012 at 19:34
Yes, both essays are band 9.
Posted by: Simon | July 06, 2012 at 12:27
will you please explain a complex table chart?
Posted by: aswathy | July 18, 2012 at 02:19
hi there, i am learning a lot from u simon. Pls tell me how to write about tables having enormous data.
Posted by: gg | June 27, 2013 at 10:45
Hi Simon,
Can you help me to correct below writing? Thanks!
The two charts illustrate the marriage and divorced status in America from 1970 to 2000, as well as proportion of four marital status in these two years respectively.
As can be seen obviously from the first chart, marriages population went to downward trend, after a decade of consistent number of 2.5 million, landing at 2 million of married couples in 2000, whilst the total number of divorces population fluctuated slightly, reaching its peak in 1980 at around 1.4 million, before went back to 1 million people in 2000, same amount as that in 1970.
The marriage and divorce numbers are reflected on the proportion rate in the overall four marital status in 1970 and 2000 respectively when married population are notably the largest group, amounting 70% in 1970, reduced to 59% in 2000, while the never married and divorced rate saw increase in these three decades, from 15 percent (never married, 1970) to 20 percent (never married, 2000), and from 1 percent (divorced, 1970) to 9 percent (divorced, 2000).
To summarize, even though the marriage population are dropping in these three decades, it is still the largest group in America. Nevertheless, we should note that the divorced rate is going to upper trend.
Posted by: Erica Liu | July 08, 2016 at 10:28
"The first bar chart shows changes in the number of marriages and divorces in the USA,and the second char shows figures for the marital status of American adults in 1970 and 2000"
In this sentence why we use "changes"and "figures"
Posted by: Sanjeeda | September 14, 2017 at 05:20