Here is the official arithmetic: ielts.org's format page says "Task 2 contributes twice as much as Task 1 to the Writing score." Task 1 is the half-weight task — yet it eats a full share of exam-day panic, usually spent transcribing numbers. And inside Task 1, the official band descriptors point at one element above everything else. Band 6 Task Achievement says a relevant overview "is attempted". Band 7 says the response
"presents a clear overview, the data are appropriately categorised, and main trends or differences are identified."
Two or three sentences — the overview — sit directly on the line between Band 6 and Band 7 for a quarter of your Task 1 mark. No other single element of a Task 1 answer gets named that precisely in the current (May 2023) descriptors.
What Task 1 Academic actually asks
The official wording, from ielts.org's Academic Writing format page:
"In Task 1, you have to describe some visual information in your own words (a graph, table, chart or diagram)."
"You need to write at least 150 words in about 20 minutes."
That is the whole task: describe, in your own words, at least 150 words, about 20 minutes. The word "describe" is doing quiet work — you are not asked to explain causes, give opinions, or speculate about why a line rises. You summarise what the visual shows.
Note the criterion name. Task 1 is marked on Task Achievement — not Task Response, which belongs to Task 2. The official scoring page lists the four Writing criteria as:
"Task achievement (for task 1) and task response (for task 2), Coherence and cohesion, Lexical resource, Grammatical range and accuracy."
And crucially: "The criteria are weighted equally and the score on the task is the average."
| Criterion | What it covers on Task 1 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Task Achievement | Key features selected, clear overview, accurate data support | 25% |
| Coherence and Cohesion | Logical organisation, linking, paragraphing | 25% |
| Lexical Resource | Vocabulary range and precision | 25% |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | Sentence variety, error control | 25% |
The overview lives inside Task Achievement — one criterion, 25% of the task. But it is the one piece of the 25% you can secure in advance, because every graph, table, chart or diagram has main trends, and the move for finding them is always the same.
The failure: reporting instead of overviewing
The specific mistake this page prevents has a name — data-listing. The candidate opens with a paraphrase of the prompt, then marches through the figure left to right: "In 2000 it was 20%. In 2005 it rose to 31%. In 2010 it reached 44%…" Every number is accurate. No sentence ever says what the graph shows.
Read the Band 6 descriptor again: a relevant overview "is attempted". A data-list does not even attempt one. The Band 7 wording asks for three things a list of numbers cannot deliver — a clear overview, data that are "appropriately categorised", and "main trends or differences" identified. Categorised means grouped: risers together, fallers together, the outlier flagged. A chronological march through the axis is the opposite of categorising.
The descriptors also reward selection over completeness. Band 7 says "Key features which are selected are covered and clearly highlighted" — the wording assumes you chose some features and left others out. Copying every data point is not thoroughness; it is a failure to select.
A worked overview — original example
Suppose the task described a line graph like this (scenario described in words, as our practice tasks are marked from the real visual):
A line graph shows the percentage of households with fixed broadband in three countries — Chile, Malaysia and Kenya — every five years from 2000 to 2020. Chile climbs steadily from a low base to the highest final figure. Malaysia starts highest, rises, then flattens after 2010. Kenya stays near zero until 2010, then roughly doubles in each remaining period but finishes lowest.
An overview for that graph — original, written for this page:
Overall, broadband access rose in all three countries over the period, but at strikingly different stages: Chile's steady growth eventually overtook Malaysia, whose early lead flattened after 2010. Kenya, despite the fastest late growth in relative terms, remained the lowest throughout.
Why those three sentences work, line by line:
- "rose in all three countries" — the single trend every line shares. That is the first thing to hunt for: what do all the lines do? It is the broadest true statement available, and it is a trend, not a number — notice the overview contains no figures at all. Figures belong in the detail paragraphs, where the descriptors want information "supported using figures/data".
- "at strikingly different stages: Chile… overtook Malaysia, whose early lead flattened" — this is the "appropriately categorised" move. Chile and Malaysia are contrasted as a pair: steady riser versus early leader that stalls. One crossover, named in plain words.
- "Kenya… fastest late growth… remained the lowest throughout" — the outlier, given its own sentence, with its two defining features: dramatic relative growth, lowest absolute position. That tension is exactly a "main difference" the Band 7 wording asks you to identify.
Three sentences, zero numbers, every line accounted for by trend rather than by data point. That is the entire skill — and it transfers to tables, bar charts and pie charts unchanged: find what moves together, what diverges, and what stands apart.
No band is claimed for this example — there is no examiner in the room, and a full answer would need detail paragraphs behind it.
The under-length rule — an honest contradiction
The official format page is blunt: "You must write at least 150 words and will be penalised if your answer is too short." Every reputable guide repeats it.
But the current May-2023 band descriptors PDF — the document examiners rate against — contains no explicit word-count penalty rule at all. The only hard length rule in the entire scale sits at the bottom:
"Responses of 20 words or fewer are rated at Band 1."
That is a genuine gap between two official documents, and we report it rather than resolve it: the format page promises a penalty for under 150 words; the descriptors specify no mechanism for it above the 20-word floor. The sensible reading is that a short answer damages you through the scale itself — fewer words means fewer key features covered and thinner development under Task Achievement — but IELTS does not publish how. Write 150-plus and the question never arises.
Two neighbouring rules from the same format page are worth knowing while you are there: "You will be penalised if what you write does not relate to the topic," and "You will also be penalised if your answer is not written as a whole piece of connected text (i.e. you must not use notes or bullet points)." Full sentences, on topic, 150-plus.
What actually costs you
- No overview sentence at all — the single most expensive omission the descriptors name.
- An overview made of numbers — figures support details; the overview states trends.
- Listing every data point in axis order instead of selecting and grouping key features.
- Explaining or opining — the task says describe; causes and opinions belong in Task 2.
- Bullet points or note form — the format page penalises anything that is not connected text.
- Spending 30 of your 60 minutes here — the task worth double is still waiting.
Try one
The overview move only becomes automatic when someone marks yours against the real criteria.
[Write a marked Task 1 →] — one full task, marked, no card required.