Section 6 / Lesson 1 - Questions with different types of chart
In this final section, we'll go through everything else you need to know before taking the test.
1. We will first look at how to deal with questions where you are given two or more different types of graph.
2. I have a downloadable and printable PDF of the checklists for each of the writing types.
3. An FAQ where I answer common questions and you have the chance to ask questions.
4 + 5. Finally, I will show how you can get more practice questions, model answers, and personal help.
How to deal with different types of graph
Very commonly in the IELTS test, the data that you need to describe will be given to you in two different ways. This could be a line chart and a table or a pie chart and a table.
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The first thing to do here is to analyse if the two charts or tables have anything in common. If the data is given in a different format, most likely there won't be anything comparable between the two, so instead, try to discuss one of the graphs in one paragraph and then the other graph in the other body paragraph.
Looking at the example here, the military spending over time cannot be compared to the difference between military and health spending in different countries. Therefore, I would recommend this structure:
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1. Introduction
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Paraphrase the question
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Overview - give an outline of each graph in turn
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2. Body 1 - World spending on military over time
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3. Body 2 - Summary of spending on healthcare and military in 8 countries.
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For each paragraph use the language and checklists for that type of question. For instance, in this example, I would use the 'change over time' (part 3) language for the first graph and the 'comparisons' (part 2) for the 2nd graph.
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You will find that if you have more than one graph, you often have a lot of data to describe in 150 words. This makes it even more important that you group data, and pick only the most important data points to reference and compare. Planning is always important, but it's even more important here.
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