The price of oil fell from $150 in Jan 2014 to $50 in Jan 2015. Use this tense to talk about an action that started and finished at a specific time in the past. The price of oil will have reached $300 a barrel by 2020. We use this tense to state that something will be finished at a particular time in the future. Oil prices have been decreasing since July. We use this tense to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now. The price of oil has fallen by $5 a barrel every week since July. In writing task 1, we use this tense to talk about changes in data that have happened over a period of time. We use this tense generally to talk about an action that happened at an unspecified time before now. This is not a complete list of tenses, and an awareness of all the English tenses will help you achieve the IELTS score you need.

Remember, the tense you use will depend on the information displayed in the graph.

If there is no time, we use the present simple.īelow are a range of tenses that could be used in task 1.

If it has projections for the future, for example, 2045, we use future tenses.

If the time is one point in the past, for example, January 1990, then we should use the past tense.

This will help you establish what tense you should use. The key is to look at the chart’s title and the information on both axes to establish what time frame is used. Using the appropriate tenses in IELTS writing task 1 is essential if you want to get a high band score.

To summarise, the most marked change is….ĭon’t say ‘to conclude’.

To help you do this, here are some short phrases. Your overview paragraph should contain two or three sentences summarising the main features of the graph. IELTS writing task 1 is essentially a summarising task. The least popular mode of transport was buses. The highest % of commuters preferred taxis. Taxis were more popular than public transport. Overall, more people preferred public transport to taxis.Ī higher number of people preferred public transport to taxis. Here are five grammatical structures you can use to make comparisons. IELTS writing task 1 will often require comparing data sources, groups and times. The price of oil halved in less than a year.īy July, the price of oil has halved. There has been an increase in the cost of coffee. The percentage of homes dropped dramatically. There are three main ways you can describe increases and decreases. When describing any of the charts in IELTS writing task 1, you might have to describe increases and decreases. There has been a sharp drop in the price of oil. There was a gradual rise in the price of oil. There are two main grammatical structures we can use to describe trends. This may come up in a line graph, bar chart or when comparing more than one chart. In IELTS writing task 1, you may have to describe trends. I discuss process diagrams in a separate post. I have only included advice for charts, such as pie charts, line graphs and bar charts, in this post. In other words, don’t insert complicated sentences or tenses just for the sake of it.īelow is some advice on certain grammar structures that will help boost your score in part one of the writing test if used appropriately. This is a poor strategy that will make your answers look unnatural and can result in you making mistakes.Ī good answer uses complex sentences (such as conditional and relative clauses) that flow naturally. Many students try to insert complex sentences and tenses into their answers. Range of grammarĪ good answer will have a range of appropriate structures and tenses. Simple errors, which could be fixed with a quick check, will really damage your marks in this area. Always try to leave yourself two minutes at the end to proofread your work. Even a small mistake like an article in the wrong place or misplaced plural counts towards this.Īs a result, you must check your work after you finish writing. Therefore, you need to make sure each sentence has no errors.

Accuracy of grammarĮxaminers look for how many ‘error-free’ sentences you have. Your ability to use a wide range of grammar structures.Īs a result, grammar is often the area that students struggle with the most, as it can easily bring a student’s scores down.Your ability to produce grammatically accurate sentences.Therefore, grammar accounts for 25% of the marks in your writing test. This article will help you improve your score for IELTS Writing Task 1 vocabulary and grammar.įirstly, you should know that the IELTS writing test marking scheme is divided into four parts:

Time sink phrase