← IELTS Writing / Task 1 data accuracy

📊 Task 1 – Data Accuracy

Band 7 in Task 1 is not only about good language. Every sentence has to attach the right figure to the right name with the right unit. This page trains that habit with five auto-graded drills on four original charts.

🔍 Read the legend📏 Read the unit🔢 36 auto-graded questions✅ 100% original material

0Two marks that disappear for free

Two data mistakes come up again and again in the scripts we mark, and both cost more than a grammar slip would:
● The legend mix-up. Three lines were described in the wrong order, so every figure in the essay was attached to the wrong name. Task Achievement drops even though the English is good.
● The doubled unit. The axis said thousands and the sentence said 3,500 thousand. That is 3.5 million – a thousand times the real figure.

Neither mistake is a language problem. Both come from writing before reading. The routine below takes about forty seconds and prevents both.

Legend first. Name every line, bar or slice out loud before you write anything. Colour, dash pattern and marker shape all identify a series.
Unit next. Read the axis title in full: Visitors (thousands), millions, per cent, dollars. Write the unit down once, then never repeat it inside the number.
First and last. Note the opening and closing value of each series. These two numbers give you the overview and most of the detail.
Peak, low point and crossings. Mark the highest point, the lowest point and any year where two series cross. These are the sentences that show real understanding.

ADrill A – Read the legend7 questions

Chart 1. Visitors to three museums in Brentford, 2012–2020

Figures are given in thousands of visitors.

Use the legend under the chart to decide which line each question is about. Name the series before you look at its shape. The three lines also differ in dash pattern and marker shape, which is what you have to rely on when a question paper is printed in black and white.

BDrill B – Read the unit7 questions

Chart 2. Households with home internet access in four towns, 2005 and 2020

Read the vertical axis title carefully before you answer.

Read each question carefully: most ask you to pick the accurate statement, but the last one asks you to pick the faulty one. The wrong options change the unit, the scale or the comparison.

CDrill C – Write the figure in full7 questions

Chart 3. Rail passengers in four cities, 2021

A table mixes units: one column is a number of passenger journeys, the other is a share.

City	Passengers (millions)	Travelling at peak times (%)
Northport	8.4	62
Eastvale	12.7	45
Sutton Ridge	3.6	71
Westbrook	15.2	38

Chart 4. How one household in Meadowbrook spent its monthly budget, 2022

The slices are percentages, but the total is given in dollars.

Type the figure only – the unit is already printed in the sentence, and repeating it is the doubled-unit error this page is about. Commas are optional: 70,000 and 70000 are both accepted.

DDrill D – Accuracy check9 questions

Each sentence below could appear in a Task 1 answer about Charts 1–4. Decide whether it is accurate, and if not, say what has gone wrong. Scroll up to the charts as often as you need.

EDrill E – Complete the sentence6 questions

Fill each gap with the correct figure from the charts, and again type the figure only. Three of the answers cannot be read off a chart at all: you have to calculate them.

✓Model paragraph and the two-minute accuracy check

Read the model below against Chart 1. Every name, figure and unit in it can be traced back to a point on the graph – that is what an examiner checks first.

Model – Chart 1

The line graph compares the number of visitors to three museums in Brentford between 2012 and 2020, in thousands. Overall, the Old Mill Museum rose continuously and ended the period as the busiest of the three, whereas the City Gallery fell for much of the period before recovering, and the Harbour Museum finished only 5,000 higher than it started.

In 2012 the City Gallery was the most popular, with 75,000 visitors, compared with 40,000 for the Harbour Museum and only 20,000 for the Old Mill Museum. The Harbour Museum then rose to a peak of 70,000 in 2016 before falling back to 45,000 by 2020, while the City Gallery declined to a low of 52,000 in 2016 and then climbed to 80,000, its highest figure of the period.

Meanwhile, visitor numbers at the Old Mill Museum increased in every period, and the increases themselves grew larger, from 10,000 between 2012 and 2014 to 24,000 between 2018 and 2020. The museum overtook the Harbour Museum in 2018 and reached 90,000 in 2020.

Run this check before you hand the paper in

Legend. Does every name in my answer match the line, bar or slice I meant?
Unit, once only. Have I written 54,000 or 54 thousand, never 54,000 thousand?
Traceable figures. Can I point to each number on the visual, or show the sum it comes from?
Total or change? Am I describing how big a figure is, or how much it moved? They are rarely the same item.
Inside the period. Is every year I mention actually covered by the data?
Share or amount? A slice of 22% is a share; 550 dollars is an amount. Do not swap them.

Next step: take these habits into a full answer. Try Line graphs for paragraph structure, and The overview for the sentence that lifts Task 1 from Band 5 to Band 7.