IELTS Task 1 UK Postgraduate and Graduate destinations in 2008

The advice I am giving here is only the approach that I took to answering and writing this IELTS question from Cambridge English IELTS.

It is perfectly possible to answer the question differently.

However, I consider the approach below to be the best method for the type of information and the time allowed to answer the question.

First of all, I read the question and established that there is just one date or period, then I noted that the two categories, graduate and postgraduate and the four destinations on the x-axis after completing studies.

I spent some time looking at the figures on the y-axis, and decided that while there might appear to be some similarities, the figures are quite different in the amounts.

This meant it would neither be practical nor relevant to try and compare part-time work graduates and part-time work post-graduates.

I decided that in each chart the four figures should simply be reported, from the highest to the lowest.

I did notice that pictorially the visual information is quite similar, if I disregarded the figures, so this would be the basis of my overview.

I did not spend too much time writing the introduction.

I concentrated on making sure that the introduction was clear and to the point.

I reported in my overview that there were pictorial similarities between the two bar charts.

I did say that we cannot compare the numbers directly but this is optional and not a requirement.

Next I made sure that I would report all of the information in the chart and include the figures (eight figures in total)

Finally, I decided to report each bar chart separately  and report from the highest figure to the lowest. 

🙂

Two Bar Chart IELTS TASK 1 Question

The two charts below show what UK graduate and postgraduate students who did not go into full time work did after leaving college in 2008.  

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and making comparisons where relevant 

My Sample Answer for this Bar Chart

The two bar charts show what both postgraduate and the graduate students did after completing their studies aside from full time work. 

It is clear that while we cannot compare postgraduate and graduate numbers directly, continuing to study is the most popular choice made by students, followed by working part-time. In both postgraduate and graduate charts about half of the students were unemployed in 2008 and very low numbers chose to do voluntary work. 

In the first chart which shows graduate numbers, 29, 665 who left college in 2008 went onto further study. 17,735 were in part-time employment and 16,235 were unemployed. The final figure indicates that 3,500 chose to do some form of work in the voluntary sector. 

The second chart shows the same categories for postgraduate students. Here we can see that the number of postgraduates continuing with their education was 2,725. A lower figure of 2,535 represents the number of postgraduate students who decided to work part-time while the number of students without work was 1,625. The final figure shows that in 2008, 345 postgraduates decided to work voluntarily.  

Words 182

Adapted from Cambridge English IELTS 10, 2015  

I’m Jonathan, an online-IELTS preparation specialist.

I help IELTS students achieve the IELTS score they need with courses, training, feedback and advice.

I have taught IELTS and University English in more than a dozen universities and schools around the world.

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