IELTS Writing Task 1 Line Graph
A practice line graph in the style of Academic Writing Task 1, with a model answer, the words for describing trends, and the mistakes that cost the most marks. Write your own report first, then put the graph and your report into the checker for a band on all four criteria.
The practice task
The graph below shows the number of passenger journeys made by bus, metro and tram in Riverton between 2000 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
How to write a line graph report
- Introduction (one sentence). Say what the graph shows, where and when, in your own words. Don't copy the task.
- Overview (two or three sentences). The biggest trends with no figures: which line rose or fell most, which ended highest, where lines crossed.
- Body paragraph 1. One group of lines or one part of the period, with the figures that prove it.
- Body paragraph 2. The rest, comparing lines wherever the graph invites it.
Spend two or three minutes finding the main features before you write. Here they are: the metro rose and overtook the bus, bus use fell, trams stayed far below both but tripled, and all three dropped in 2020.
Model answer
Try the task yourself before reading this. 203 words.
The line graph shows how many passenger journeys were made each year by bus, metro and tram in Riverton at five-year intervals between 2000 and 2025.
Overall, the metro replaced the bus as the most used form of public transport in the city, while bus journeys fell over the period as a whole. Trams were used far less than either, although the number of tram journeys tripled. All three were used less in 2020 than five years earlier.
In 2000, there were 42 million bus journeys, more than twice as many as on the metro (18 million). Bus use peaked at 45 million in 2005 and then declined, slowly at first and then sharply, to just 26 million in 2020. The metro, by contrast, grew steadily, overtook the bus between 2010 and 2015 and reached 41 million journeys in 2015.
After falling to 29 million in 2020, metro journeys climbed to a high of 46 million in 2025, almost one and a half times the figure for buses (31 million). Tram journeys stayed at 5 million until 2005 and then rose gradually to 12 million in 2015. Despite a slight dip to 10 million in 2020, they ended the period at 15 million.
Why this answer works
- The introduction paraphrases the task: "how many passenger journeys were made" instead of "the number of passenger journeys".
- The overview has no numbers and names four main features, so the examiner sees at once that you understood the graph.
- The details are grouped: bus and metro up to 2015 first, where the lines cross, then 2020 to 2025 and the trams.
- It compares ("more than twice as many", "almost one and a half times") instead of describing each line on its own.
- It reports and doesn't explain. The graph gives no reason for the fall in 2020, so neither does the report.
- The past tense throughout, because every year shown is in the past.
Line graph vocabulary for IELTS
| Meaning | Words | Example from this task |
|---|---|---|
| Going up | rise, increase, climb, grow | Metro journeys climbed to 46 million in 2025. |
| Going down | fall, decline, drop, decrease | Bus use fell to 26 million in 2020. |
| Highest point | peak at, reach a high of | Bus journeys peaked at 45 million in 2005. |
| No change | stay at, remain stable, level off | Tram journeys stayed at 5 million until 2005. |
| One line passes another | overtake, exceed | The metro overtook the bus between 2010 and 2015. |
| Comparing | twice as many as, three times, by far the most | There were more than twice as many bus journeys as metro journeys in 2000. |
Add how big or fast a change was: sharply or dramatically for big changes, steadily or gradually for even ones, slightly for small ones. Use by for the size of a change and to for the new figure: metro journeys rose by 8 million, to 41 million.
Line graph mistakes that cost the most marks
- Listing every figure, year by year. Select the key points and group them.
- No overview, or an overview full of numbers. Without a clear overview, Task Achievement usually stays at 5.
- The wrong unit. This graph counts journeys in millions, so "42 passengers" or "42 million people" misreports it.
- Giving reasons. "Fell in 2020 because of the pandemic" is your idea, not the graph's.
- Mixing up "by" and "to". "Rose to 8 million" is wrong when the rise was 8 million.
- Describing each line separately. Examiners reward comparisons between the lines.
More Academic Task 1 practice: the pie chart, map, bar chart and table. Process diagrams can also be checked on the Task 1 checker, and General Training has its own letter practice. For what each band needs, read the Task Achievement band descriptors, explained.