Hi guys,
I have posted the model answer with a list of tips for you on the original page. Click here: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-table-spending-on-items/
All the best
Liz
IELTS Table: Spending on Items
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A practice table for IELTS writing task 1, academic paper. This is a great table to help you practise organising information into paragraphs and to practise highlighting key features in an overview.
Take your time to review the table below. You should spend at least 3 mins spotting key features and deciding how to organise information into body paragraphs. You should never spend more than 20 mins writing your report. Please remember this is a report and not an essay.
IELTS Table: Spending Income on Categories
The table below is very challenging because it has a lot of categories both along the top and side of the table. With so much data, it is important to take your time to understand the categories. You can see there are adults, men, women, children, boys and girls. Think about what their spending patterns are before you start writing. For tips about approaching IELTS Tables, before you tackle this one, click here: IELTS Table Tips & Models.
Write your own answer before checking the model answer provided below.
Model Table Answer
Before you look at the model answer:
- Have you completed your answer? Make sure you have reviewed your writing before checking the model answer.
- Did you put all key features into the overview? It is the most important paragraph so don’t think it is a small statement.
- Did you group information together in your body paragraphs? By grouping categories together, you don’t miss them out completely.
If you are happy with your answer, compare it with the model table answer below.
Click here: Model Answer
Model Answer
The table illustrates the percentage of income that was spent on food, electronic equipment, music and videos by both adults and children, divided by gender, in the UK in 1998.
Overall, adults spent less of their whole income on the four items compared to children. Adult spending was mainly on food, with women spending double that of men on that item, and little was spent on other items. For children, a large proportion of their money was spent on music and spending on other items was also significant with the least spent on food.
For adults, 25% of their money went on food with women using up to 39% of their income on it, compared to only 14% for men. Expenditure on electrical equipment accounted for 10% of men’s income but only 1% for women. Less than 5% was spent on all other items by both genders.
In terms of children, expenditure on music was 39%, with girls spending 40% (2% more than boys). Spending on electrical equipment was 23% overall, although girls only used 5% of their money on this. For videos, both genders used around 18% of their income. However, food accounted for only about 10% of spending in total and by each gender.
Notes on Table Strategies:
- Word length – tables are often the longest type of writing task 1 to write because there is so much to give. for most writing task 1, your aim is between 170 and 190 words. For some tables with a lot of columns and numbers, you might go up to 200 or even 210 (absolute max 215). But to go over 215 words would mean you haven’t grouped information together properly and are getting lost in too much detail. You are actually being marked on your ability to highlight key features and group information together. So, you’ll get marked down for a long writing task 1 report. The model table above was 206 words. Return now to the model above and see precisely what I did and didn’t highlight, and how I did it.
- Use good linking words such as
- in terms of
- regarding
- compared to
- as opposed to
- however
- on the other hand
- you are being marked on your use of linking words.
- Paraphrase carefully. If you use poor word choices when you paraphrase, you’ll produce too many errors which will result in a lower score. Be careful!
- Keep your sentence structures complex, but not too long. A very long sentence will often be marked down in IELTS. So, aim for just one or two clauses at most.
Review: The key to a good report is that information is easy to read and understand. Sentences are complex, but information is simply organised and presented so that the reader can follow easily it and grasp the content quickly. For more free tips, see this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-1-lessons-and-tips/
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I hope you found this useful. Liz
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Answers to Procrastination Reading Lesson
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Hi guys,
I’ve posted the answers back on the original page for you. Click here: https://ieltsliz.com/reading-practice-procrastination/
All the best
Liz
Reading Practice: Procrastination
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This reading lesson is based on Sentence Completion questions that are very common in IELTS reading, both GT and Academic.
Reading Exercise: Procrastination
Procrastination refers to the voluntary postponement of an unpleasant task, often against one’s better judgement (Steel, 2007). There are a few reasons for procrastination. One reason is the lack of imposed direction that’s become common in the workplace. People tend to dawdle in completing a task when they are not given set deadlines and goals. The most significant predictor of procrastination is a task that’s considered unpleasant, boring, or uninteresting. The less people are interested in their task, the less effort they put into completing it. Furthermore, avoidance is a well-known form of coping with anxiety. Procrastinators may postpone getting started because of their doubts and a fear of failure. Finally, when difficulties arise, people with weak self-confidence easily develop doubts about their ability to accomplish the task at hand, while those with strong beliefs are more likely to continue their efforts. When low self-confidence causes people to avoid activities, they miss opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills. All these reasons are typical of procrastination. However, there is one other reason not mentioned so far and that is passive aggressive behaviour. These people use avoidance tactics to express their anger in a non-confrontational way by purposely not completing their task which they know might cause problems for others.
Source: Adapted from psychologytoday.com. Parts of this passage have been altered from the original to suit the lesson.
Questions 1-5: Complete the sentences using no more than two words and/or a number.
- People may procrastinate if they are not given clear aims and …………………
- Without an interest in what they are doing, people might not put enough …………. into it.
- People may delay beginning their task because of a ………..of …………
- Some people avoid learning new skills due to ………………
- Passive aggressive people procrastinate to convey ………..
Answers
Click below to reveal the answers:
Answers
- DEADLINES / SET DEADLINES
- The answer cannot be “goals” because that is already paraphrased in the question as “aims”.
- EFFORT
- This should be singular. This is not usual in IELTS and is specifically for this lesson only. The question I have written requires you to change the noun.
- FEAR FAILURE
- It is not necessary to use punctuation in any listening answers. You can just write two words only. If you use a comma, it is fine – but not necessary.
- Your answer will be marked wrong if you wrote “of”. This word is given in the question and you do not repeat it. Your task is to write what it missing.
- Some people struggled with this one. They thought the answer was “doubt fear. For example, “People may delay beginning their task because of a doubt of fear.” = this is 100% wrong.
- The term “a fear of failure” is an expression which is well known. It cannot be written as “a doubt of fear”.
- In the passage, it said that people procrastinate because of doubt AND a fear of failure. As you see “doubt” and “fear of failure” are two different things. You can have “doubt and fear”, but you can’t have “doubt of fear” – the question had the word “of”, it did not have the word “and”.
- So this question really tests your understanding of language. I hope this explanation will help you understand if you got that question wrong.
- LOW SELF-CONFIDENCE / WEAK SELF-CONFIDENCE
- If you wrote only “self-confidence” it would be marked wrong. This is not about self-confidence, it is specifically about LOW self-confidence.
- You must decide when to add the extra word and when not to. This will always depend on meaning. To miss the word “low” changes the meaning.
- ANGER
- You should not use “their”. It is not necessary to include the pronoun, only the noun.
- postponement
- against one’s better judgement
- procrastination / procrastinate
- dawdle
- deadlines
- predictor
- avoidance
- a fear of failure
- low self-confidence
- acquire knowledge
- passive aggressive behaviour
- avoidance tactics
- non-confrontational
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I hope you enjoyed the topic. Procrastination is a common problem for many people – don’t let that happen with your IELTS preparation 🙂
All the best
Liz
Answers for My University Listening Practice
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Below are answers with tips for the practice listening lesson about My University. If you have not done this lesson, please click here: My University Listening,before looking at the answers.
Answers
- 19
- Some of you have difficult hearing the difference between 19 and 90. Try this lesson to improve your listening with these types of numbers: Numbers listening video
- 1879
- The listening recording says “Thomas Holloway founded the college in 1879.” The question was “The college was established in…” The word “established” is a synonym for “founded”.
- The preposition “in” in the question means you should listen for a date or a place. As you listen for the synonym keyword, you find it is a date.
- 8,000
- You do not need to use a comma in the number, but it helps the person marking if you do.
- The recording actually says “Today, Royal Holloway is a thriving co-educational community of some 8,000 students…”. The word “some” means “about”. You do not need to write it in your answer.
- SECLUDED
- The question is clearly asking for you to write an adjective “… feels like a peaceful, …… place …”.
- The audio says “…. like the campus is enjoying a peaceful, secluded existence right in the heart of the British countryside.”
- It is always best to write your answers using capital letters.
- The spelling must be correct or the answer will be marked wrong.
- 19 MILES
- The question asks for a distance “is located … from X”.
- The audio says “it is only 19 miles from the centre of London”.
- Always check if the question gives the word “miles”. If the word is given in the question, you do not repeat it in the answer.
- In this case, if you wrote only 19 without the word “miles”, your answer would be marked wrong.
- HISTORY SOCIAL SCIENCES
- If you wrote “and” in your answer, it would be marked wrong. The word “and” was written in the question and you do not need to repeat it. This only applies when you are completing sentences as a task because the sentence must be grammatically correct once you have completed it.
- You must have “s” with the word “sciences”. If you didn’t write the “s”, your answer would be marked wrong.
- You do not need to write a comma between the words. If you want to write a comma, you can. But it isn’t necessary. Punctuation is not needed in your answers for listening.
- Many people struggled with this question because they understand “social sciences”. Examples of social sciences are: anthropology, Geography, Sociology, Psychology, Linguistics, Law etc. Take a look online if you are unsure. This term usually applies to university subjects rather than school subjects.
I hope you enjoyed this listening lesson. I now recommend you go back to the original listening lesson and listen again to the video.
Did you like my university? I, personally, think it is a beautiful building. I actually lived for one year in the main castle building 🙂
All the best
Liz
Listening Practice: My University
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This listening practice is with a video rather than an audio recording. It is a video of Royal Holloway, University of London, which is actually where I completed my BA Hons degree. I thought you would enjoy seeing it. The main building is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen for a university and I was lucky enough to live in the castle for one year.
The listening exercise is not difficult so I expect you all to get at least 5 out of 6 correct 🙂
Listening Practice: My University
Read the questions first and then listen to the video below and answer the questions.
Questions 1 – 6: no more than three words and/or a number
- The University of London is made up of ………. different institutions.
- The college was established in ………..
- Nowadays, the university has ………… students from over 100 countries.
- The campus feels like a peaceful, ……….. place in the countryside.
- Royal Holloway is located ………… from the centre of London.
- There are three world class faculties: the arts faculty, …………….and ……………………, and the science faculty.
Liz’s University: Royal Holloway, University of London
Listen to the video and answer the questions above. Please note that in the IELTS test, you won’t be given a video with music to listen to. I have created this lesson to be enjoyable, to learn about the university I went to and also to practice sentence completion questions, which are very common in the IELTS listening test.
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Answers
Click here: Answers for My University Listening Lesson
All the best
Liz
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IELTS Writing Task 1: Pie Chart Model Score 9
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How to compare two pie charts in IELTS writing task 1. This sample answer illustrates the method of organising the report as well as useful language and sentence structures to get a band score 9.
IELTS Pie Charts
The pie charts below show the comparison of different kinds of energy production of France in two years.
Source: Above pie charts not created by IELTS Liz.
Pie Chart Sample Answer
The two pie charts illustrate the proportion of five sources of energy production (coal, gas, nuclear, petrol and other sources) in France in two years (1995 and 2005).
Overall, in both years coal and gas accounted for over half of all energy production, while the least was other energy sources. There was only a very minimal increase in production from gas and coal, whereas nuclear and other sources almost doubled. Petrol was the only energy source to decrease over the period.
Energy produced by coal comprised of 29.80% in 1995 and by 2005, it increased by about 1% to 30.9%. Likewise, the amount of energy generated by gas went up by approximately 1% from 29.63% in the first year to 30.1% by the final year. The use of nuclear power rose significantly from 6.40% in 1995 to 10.10% in 2005. Other sources of energy production accounted for 4.90% but then climbed to 9.10%.
Petrol, on the other hand, produced 29.27% of all energy in 1995 but 10 years later only 19.55% of energy came from this source.
Words = 177
IELTS Pie Chart Tips
- Introduction paragraph should introduce all aspects of the task.
- The overview must contain all key features of all pie charts. This is the most important paragraph and should not be only one sentence. You must identify the key features of both charts and present them as an overview. You are being marked on the content of this paragraph.
- Always highlight the largest and smallest proportions in the overview.
- Note whether the pie charts show change over time or comparison of categories divided by gender or in a similar way. Not all pie charts are the same. Depending on the information given, you’ll use different language and organise things differently.
- If there are two pie charts in different time periods, then you must highlight the key changes / trends.
- Use pie chart language – accounts for / comprises of / represents.
- The phrase “Units are measured in …” should be used when the units have not been stated in the previous sentence.
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Do I need an overview for an IELTS Diagram?
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There is a simple answer to this question. YES!
For IELTS writing task 1 (academic paper), the overview is the most important paragraph. It is the paragraph that contains all the key features to help the reader grasp the main information contained in the diagram.
You need to look at the stages and summarise them into one statement (max two statements). It is important that the examiner finds your overview quickly and easily, so always start with “Overall, …”.
The overview is part of the marking criterion of Task Achievement. See below how it affects your score:
- Band 5 = no clear overview
- Band 6 = an overview is presented
- Band 7 = a clear overview of main trends or stages
You can see how important this overview is. Even when you are given a diagram, you must give details of the main stages in your overview.
To see a model answer for a diagram and other useful tips for writing task 1 academic, click here: http://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-1-lessons-and-tips/
For anyone taking the IELTS GT test, you will be asked to write a letter. Always follow the order of the prompts given. Each prompt will be one paragraph. Add more detail to each paragraph from your imagination to make the letter realistic. Make sure you understand who the letter is to and what the purpose of the letter is. This will help you decide your tone and style. See this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-1-lessons-and-tips/
All the best
Liz
