Task 1 Academic · Bar chart · Health
Physical activity among men and women by age
A grouped bar chart where men lead among the young and women lead among the old, and the real story is how differently the two sets of bars slope.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The chart below shows the percentage of men and women in one country who met the recommended weekly level of physical activity in one year, by age group.
| Age group | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 16–24 | 68 | 52 |
| 25–44 | 55 | 49 |
| 45–64 | 47 | 48 |
| 65 and over | 38 | 41 |
A 150-word factual summary of a graph, chart, table, process or map. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
The male figure falls almost three times as far as the female one across the age groups, turning a 16-point male lead into a 3-point female one; only the band 9 answer measures that and explains why the chart cannot be read as people ageing.
The three answers
Band 6.5
174 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
The bar chart shows the percentage of men and women who did the recommended amount of physical activity in one country in one year, and it is divided in four age groups.
In the 16–24 age group, 68 per cent of men did enough exercise and 52 per cent of women did it. In the 25–44 group, the men was 55 per cent and the women was 49 per cent4, so the men was higher again.
In the 45–64 group, the men decreased to 47 per cent and the women decreased to 48 per cent2, so the women was a little higher. In the group of 65 and over, the men decreased again to 38 per cent3 and the women decreased to 41 per cent, and the women was higher again.
Overall, there were many differences between the men and the women and between the different age groups in the chart.1 The older people did less exercise than the younger people, especially the men, who decreased from 68 per cent to 38 per cent.
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“Overall, there were many differences between the men and the women and between the different age groups in the chart.”
An overview with no content. The difference that matters — men lead among the young and women among the old — is already in the body and is not brought up here.
2. Lexical resource
“the men decreased to 47 per cent and the women decreased to 48 per cent”
The chart compares age groups in one year, not the same people over time, so 'decreased' describes a change the data does not show. 'Was lower among' is what is meant.
3. Coherence and cohesion
“In the group of 65 and over, the men decreased again to 38 per cent”
The fourth age group handled in the same way as the first three. No paragraph ever follows men, or women, across the whole range.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“the men was 55 per cent and the women was 49 per cent”
Plural subjects with a singular verb, twice in one clause — and the same pairing recurs throughout, which makes it a pattern rather than a slip.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
Compare another question
- Task 1 Academic · Bar chart
Electricity sources in three countries
A bar chart in which three countries lean on three different sources, showing how the band 9 answer finds the pattern the 6.5 answer reads straight off the page.
- Task 1 Academic · Bar chart
Household recycling rates in four cities
A two-year bar chart in which the worst performer becomes the best, and three answers that differ in whether they measure that reversal against everything else on the chart.
- Task 1 Academic · Bar chart
Why international visitors came to one country
Twelve bars across three years, in which one category grows most, one is overtaken and one falls — and the answers differ in whether they add the bars up.