IELTS Writing Task 1 Practice
IELTS Academic · Academic Writing Task 1 · 16 free exercises
Task 1 gives you a chart, graph, table, map or process diagram and 20 minutes to describe it in at least 150 words. You are not asked for an opinion — you are asked to select the main features, report them accurately, and make comparisons. It carries a third of your Writing band.
How to approach it
- Write an overview sentence naming the two or three biggest patterns. Examiners look for it specifically, and a script without one is capped on Task Achievement.
- Report figures accurately. Misreading the chart costs more than a clumsy sentence does.
- Group the data — highest and lowest, rising and falling — instead of listing every number in order.
- Never explain why the trend happened or give an opinion. That is Task 2, and here it earns nothing.
- Keep to about 20 minutes. Task 2 is worth double, so time spent over-polishing Task 1 is expensive.
All Writing Task 1 exercises
Cambridge IELTS 11 Academic, Cambridge University Press
- Ashdown Museum visitors and satisfaction before and after refurbishment - Test 4
- Carbon dioxide emissions per person in four European countries - Test 3
- Languages spoken by British university students - Test 2
- Water use by purpose across six world regions - Test 1
Cambridge IELTS 12 Academic, Cambridge University Press
- Australian men and women doing regular physical activity, 2010 - Test 5
- How geothermal energy is used to produce electricity - Test 8
- How often people in the USA ate in fast food restaurants - Test 7
- Islip town centre now and planned development - Test 6
Cambridge IELTS 13 Academic, Cambridge University Press
- A university sports centre now and after redevelopment - Test 4
- Households in owned and rented accommodation in England and Wales, 1918–2011 - Test 2
- Road access to a city hospital, 2007 and 2010 - Test 1
- Top ten countries for electricity production and consumption, 2014 - Test 3