In this post: The two mixed-chart essays at a glance, then my Band 6.5 exports essay checked against the bar chart and table to find where it really lost marks.
Mixed Chart Samples · 3 parts
- 1. At a glance and Band 6.5 essay (you are here)
- 2. Band 7 essay and the gap
- 3. Rewrite, framework, checklist
✦ In this post
Mixed charts are the Task 1 question type with the most information. With a single chart you already have to find trends and compare sizes; when two charts appear together, you have 20 minutes to decide which data to include, how to paragraph and how many key points to put in the overview. It is a lot of pressure.
From late May to early July 2024, I was working towards the Writing 7.0 required by my conditional offer from the University of Cambridge, so I wrote around 50 essays in a short burst and had each one marked with four sub-scores. This post picks out the two mixed-chart essays: an export values question written in mid-June, which got 6.5, and a dance classes question written two weeks later, which got 7. The two essays are similar in length and took about the same time, but they are half a band apart. When I went back and checked each essay against the charts cell by cell, I found that the problem with the 6.5 essay was not that the sentences were not elegant enough. It was a few hard data errors.
1. The two mixed-chart essays at a glance
| Item | Band 6.5 essay (exports) | Band 7 essay (dance classes) |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Cambridge IELTS 14, Test 2 | Cambridge IELTS 19, Test 4 |
| Chart combination | Bar chart (values in two years) + table (percentage change) | Pie chart (class locations) + bar chart (two age groups × three dance types) |
| Date written | 16 June 2024 (Trial essay 2) | 1 July 2024 (Essay 44) |
| Time / length | Time not recorded; about 187 words | 18 minutes (15:41–15:59); 175 words |
| Sub-scores | TA 6–7, CC 7, LR 6–7, GRA 7 | TA 7, CC 8, LR 7, GRA 7 |
| Overall | 6.5 | 7 |
A sub-score such as “6–7” appears because my marker sometimes gave a range, meaning somewhere between the two bands. Both essays got 7 for GRA; what really separates them is TA (Task Achievement) and CC (Coherence and Cohesion). This matches the pattern I saw later when I put all 50 scores together: TA is the criterion that most often pulls Task 1 down.
2. Band 6.5: export values bar chart + percentage change table
What the task asks
The task gives two charts. The first is a bar chart comparing the value of one country’s exports in five categories in 2015 and 2016 (in billions of US dollars): petroleum products, engineered goods, gems and jewellery, agricultural products, and textiles. The second is a table giving the percentage change in each category from 2015 to 2016.
When I looked at the charts again, these were the key points I noted: petroleum products were the highest in both years (about 61 → 63); engineered goods grew noticeably (about 57 → 62), almost catching up with petroleum; gems and jewellery was the only category to fall (about 43 → 41, −5.18% in the table); agricultural products barely changed (+0.81%); and textiles started lowest (about 26) but grew fastest (+15.24%), reaching roughly the same level as agricultural products by 2016 (about 31–32).
This is the version I submitted for marking, unedited (spelling and grammar mistakes kept).
The line chart compares the export earnings and the given table illustrates the proportion fluctuation in values in one nation between 2015 and 2016. Overall, the revenue of four out of five categories increased by far in 2016, and the only exception were gems and jewellery. In addition, the percentage of textiles witnessed the biggest growth during the time frame.
Regarding export earnings, the highest earnings in both year was petroleum products, with a slight increase from nearly $61 billion to $63 billion. Engineered goods and textiles shows a similiar trend over the period; the percentages of all both of them experienced an upward trend, finishing the period at approximately $62 billion and $31 billion, respectively. In contrast, the earnings of agricultural products remained essentially unchanged at nearly $31 billion, while that of gems and jewellery decreased from roughly $43 billion to $41 billion.
In terms of the percentage change in value, all of the categories grew except gems and jewellery, which showed a 0.81% decrease. In comparison with others, the highest and the second highest growth were textiles and engineered goods, with 15.24% and 8.5%, respectively.
Why this essay got 6.5: criterion by criterion
| Criterion | Score | My analysis against the band descriptors |
|---|---|---|
| Task Achievement | 6–7 | There is an overview, and it catches “four of the five categories rose; only gems and jewellery fell” and “textiles grew the most”, which is the baseline for 6 and above. But there are two clear data errors (the wrong chart type and the 0.81% attached to the wrong category), and the percentages for petroleum and agricultural products are missing, so it stays between 6 and 7. |
| Coherence & Cohesion | 7 | Clear paragraphing: one paragraph on values, one on percentages, each opened with Regarding / In terms of to introduce the topic. The weakness is that the two paragraphs are really two sides of the same thing, so information is repeated and the reader has to match up the values and the percentages themselves. |
| Lexical Resource | 6–7 | There are common Task 1 words such as export earnings, revenue and witnessed the biggest growth, but similiar is misspelt, collocations like proportion fluctuation in values are unnatural, and percentages is used where the essay is actually talking about values. |
| Grammatical Range & Accuracy | 7 | Varied structures (a semicolon, a while contrast, with to add figures), but several subject–verb agreement errors: the only exception were, the highest earnings in both year was, Engineered goods and textiles shows. |
Major problem 1: the wrong chart type (line chart)
The very first sentence says “The line chart compares the export earnings”, but the task gives a bar chart. It looks minor, but TA cares a lot about whether the information is presented accurately. Getting even the type of chart wrong tells the examiner from the start that you did not look carefully. A 10-second check after you finish would catch this kind of mistake.
Major problem 2: 0.81% given as the fall for gems and jewellery
The third paragraph says “gems and jewellery, which showed a 0.81% decrease”. But the table gives the change for gems and jewellery as −5.18%; 0.81% is actually the growth for agricultural products. This is a classic “read the wrong row” error, and it happens to fall on the most important exception in the whole essay (the only category that fell).
In the public band descriptors, TA 6 includes “details may be irrelevant, inappropriate or inaccurate”, while 7 requires the response to “clearly present and highlight key features”. One wrong number won’t make the score collapse, but when the error is in a key feature, it is very hard to be placed at 7.
Major problem 3: only half the table is used, and the two charts are described separately
The table has five figures, and I used only three (and got the 0.81% wrong). Petroleum’s +3% and agricultural products’ +0.81% never appear. The bigger problem is the structure: the second paragraph already gives each category’s change “from X to Y”, and the third paragraph goes over “which rose and which fell” again. The information is repeated, but the two charts are never linked.
The most valuable way to write about mixed charts is to let the two charts explain each other. For example: “Textiles rose by only about $5 billion, but because it started from the smallest base, its growth rate reached 15.24%”, or “Agricultural products barely changed in value, so their growth rate was only 0.81%”. A sentence like this uses both charts at once, and the examiner can see immediately that you understand how they relate.
Other small points that lose marks
| Original | Problem | Could be |
|---|---|---|
| increased by far | by far stresses “far more than the others”, but agricultural products grew by only 0.81%, so “increased greatly” is inaccurate | rose in four of the five categories |
| the only exception were gems and jewellery | exception is singular, so the verb should be was | the only exception was gems and jewellery |
| the highest earnings in both year was | both takes the plural years; the subject earnings is plural | the highest earner in both years was |
| the percentages of all both of them | all and both repeat each other, and this paragraph is about values, not percentages | the values of both |
| Engineered goods and textiles shows | Two subjects, so the verb should be plural | Engineered goods and textiles show |
Which features should the overview pick for this task?
The most common mistake with a mixed-chart overview is trying to squeeze in the key points from both charts, which turns it into a long string of numbers. What I did later was list the “candidate features” first, then choose three at most. For this task:
| Candidate feature | In the overview? | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Four categories rose; only gems and jewellery fell | Yes | An overall trend visible in both charts, with a single exception |
| Petroleum products were the highest in both years | Yes | The most obvious ranking feature of the bar chart |
| Textiles had the highest growth rate | Yes | The most obvious feature of the table |
| Engineered goods almost caught up with petroleum | Body | A detailed comparison that needs figures to support it |
| Agricultural products barely changed | Body | Important, but not the most prominent feature |
The original overview had in fact already picked the first and third features. It only lacked “which was highest”, plus the misused by far. In other words, what kept this essay from 7 was not overall ability but a few errors that a check would have caught. That’s why I recommend always leaving 2 minutes after Task 1 purely for checking numbers.
Continue reading · Part 2 of 3
IELTS Notes in English · Band Score Samples (post 5 of 19)
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✦ Target Your Future
Some days you practise for hours and the score still does not move. I hope these notes remind you that the setbacks are part of the road: every recording you replayed, every essay you rewrote and every sentence you finally dared to say is progress you have already made.
I wrote this down so the next person can take fewer detours. You do not have to follow my method exactly. Find a rhythm that works for you, rest when you need to, and come back for the next small step.
I hope what you take away is more than a number on a score report: a little more confidence in yourself, and the courage to step a bit closer to the world.
— Ting
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