IELTS Task 1 line graph: how to describe trends

A line graph shows how something changed over time. Your answer is judged on whether you can see the main trends and compare the lines, not on how many numbers you copy.

Read the graph in this order

1. Axes and units. Is it a number, a percentage, a rate per person? “Rose by 10” and “rose by 10 percentage points” mean different things.
2. Time. Past years take the past simple. Projected years take future forms such as “is expected to” and “is forecast to”.
3. Direction of each line. Up, down, flat or fluctuating.
4. Relationships. Do lines cross, converge or move further apart? This is often the best material for your overview.

Group the lines

With three or four lines, never describe them one at a time in the order of the legend. Group them:

• lines that rose and lines that fell,
• lines that started high and lines that started low,
• for projections, actual figures and forecasts.

Each group becomes a body paragraph. In our cinema visits sample, the two younger age groups fell and the two older groups rose, so that is the split.

What to say about each line

For each line, give the start, the end, and anything in between that changes the story: a peak, a low point or a moment where it overtakes another line. Then compare it with another line. One comparison is worth more than three extra numbers.

In 2000, people aged 15 to 24 went to the cinema nine times a year on average, almost twice as often as those aged 25 to 44, at five visits.

Describing projections

When part of the graph is a forecast, change the grammar for that part only:

• Country A is forecast to reach 55% by 2035.
• Its share is expected to edge up to only 52%.
• The figure is projected to soar to 50%.

See this done in the renewable electricity sample, where the actual years and the projections get a paragraph each.

Common line graph mistakes

• Describing every point on every line: the answer becomes a list and Coherence suffers.
• Using “increase” for everything. Match the word to the size of the change: the trend language guide has the scale from “edged up” to “soared”.
• Forgetting the overview because the details seem more important.
• Mixing up a percentage and a percentage-point change.

Practise

Read both line graph models in the Task 1 samples, then time yourself for 20 minutes with the word counter set to Task 1.