Cambridge IELTS 15 Test 1 Writing Task 1: Coffee and Tea Chart
Cambridge IELTS 15 · Test 1 · Academic Writing Task 1Bar chart
The bar chart shows the results of a survey of coffee and tea habits in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart. For each city it gives the percentage of people who bought fresh coffee, bought instant coffee, or went to a cafe for coffee or tea in the previous four weeks.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The chart below shows the results of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
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Key features to report
- Going to a cafe was the most common habit in four of the five cities, with about 61% in Sydney and about 63% in both Melbourne and Hobart, and roughly 55% in Brisbane.
- Adelaide is the clear exception: only about 39% of people went to a cafe there, the lowest cafe figure by far, and instant coffee (50%) was the most common habit in that city.
- Buying fresh coffee was the least common habit in every city. It was highest in Sydney (about 43%) and Melbourne (about 42%), lower in Hobart (about 38%) and lowest in Brisbane and Adelaide (about 34% each).
- Instant coffee purchases fell in a fairly narrow band, from about 45% in Sydney to about 54% in Hobart, with Brisbane (about 53%) and Adelaide (50%) also near the top.
- In Sydney the gap between fresh and instant coffee was very small (about 43% and 45%), whereas in Brisbane instant coffee was bought by roughly 19 percentage points more people than fresh coffee.
- The figures are percentages of people surveyed, and the three categories are separate habits, so they should not be added together or described as shares of one total.
Model overview
Overall, visiting a cafe for coffee or tea was the most widespread habit in every city except Adelaide, whereas buying fresh coffee was the least common habit in all five cities. Fresh coffee was most popular in Sydney and Melbourne, while instant coffee was bought most often in Brisbane and Hobart.
Paragraph plan
- 1
Introduction
Paraphrase the task in one sentence: the bar chart compares the proportions of people in five Australian cities who bought fresh coffee, bought instant coffee or visited a cafe for coffee or tea during the previous four weeks.
- 2
Overview
State the main patterns without figures: cafe visits were the most common habit everywhere except Adelaide, fresh coffee was the least common habit in all five cities, and the cities differed in which type of coffee they bought most.
- 3
Body paragraph 1: cafe visits
Report the cafe figures: just over 60% in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart (about 63% in the last two), about 55% in Brisbane, and Adelaide much lower at about 39%, where instant coffee overtook cafe visits.
- 4
Body paragraph 2: buying fresh and instant coffee
Compare fresh coffee (about 42-43% in Sydney and Melbourne, 38% in Hobart, 34% in Brisbane and Adelaide) with instant coffee, which ranged from about 45% in Sydney to about 54% in Hobart and was higher than fresh coffee in every city.
Useful comparisons
- Group the cities by cafe culture: Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart all above 60%, Brisbane in the middle at about 55%, and Adelaide far behind at about 39%.
- Single out Adelaide as the only city where cafe visits were not the most popular habit, being overtaken by instant coffee at 50%.
- Compare the two purchase types: instant coffee was bought by more people than fresh coffee in all five cities.
- Contrast the bigger cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which had the highest fresh coffee figures, with Brisbane and Adelaide, where only about a third of people bought fresh coffee.
- Point out the narrow gap in Sydney (about 43% fresh against 45% instant) compared with the wide gap in Brisbane (about 34% against 53%).
- Note that Hobart, the smallest city, matched Melbourne for cafe visits at about 63% and had the highest instant coffee figure at about 54%.
Band 8+ model answer
192 words · An original model answer written for ieltswrites, not an official answer. It stays in English, as in the exam.
The bar chart compares the proportions of people in five Australian cities who said they had bought fresh coffee, bought instant coffee or visited a cafe for coffee or tea during the previous four weeks.
Overall, going to a cafe was the most common of the three habits in every city except Adelaide, while buying fresh coffee was the least common everywhere. Fresh coffee was most popular in Sydney and Melbourne, whereas instant coffee was bought most often in Brisbane and Hobart.
Cafe visits were reported by just over 60% of respondents in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart, with Melbourne and Hobart both reaching about 63%. The figure was somewhat lower in Brisbane, at roughly 55%, and it dropped to only about 39% in Adelaide, the lowest cafe figure by a considerable margin.
Turning to purchases, around 42-43% of people in Sydney and Melbourne had bought fresh coffee, compared with about 38% in Hobart and roughly a third in both Brisbane and Adelaide. Instant coffee, by contrast, was bought by between 45% and 54% of respondents in all five cities, and in Adelaide, at 50%, it was the most widespread habit of all.
Why this answer scores highly
- Task Achievement
- The answer gives a clear overview of the most and least common habits, highlights the Adelaide exception, and supports each key feature with accurate approximate percentages rather than listing every bar.
- Coherence and Cohesion
- Information is grouped by habit rather than by city, so each body paragraph makes direct comparisons, and linking such as by contrast, turning to and compared with guides the reader clearly.
- Lexical Resource
- The answer varies the way it reports data, using respondents, roughly a third, just over 60% and by a considerable margin, and paraphrases the labels instead of copying them.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy
- Comparative and superlative structures, relative clauses and reduced participle phrases are used accurately, with consistent past tenses for the completed survey period.
Useful vocabulary
- respondents
- the people who answered the survey
- the proportion of people surveyed
- the part of the survey group, a useful paraphrase of percentage
- in the previous four weeks
- during the month before the survey, a paraphrase of in the last 4 weeks
- fresh coffee
- coffee made from beans or ground coffee rather than powder or granules
- instant coffee
- coffee sold as powder or granules that dissolve in hot water
- the most widespread habit
- the activity done by the largest share of people
- by a considerable margin
- by a large difference
- the exception to this pattern
- the one case that does not follow the general trend
- ranged from ... to ...
- varied between a lowest and a highest figure
- percentage points
- the arithmetic difference between two percentages, e.g. 34% to 53% is 19 points
- roughly a third
- about 33%, used to vary how figures are expressed
- comparable figure
- the equivalent number for another city or category
Common mistakes
- Describing the chart city by city in five separate paragraphs, which turns the answer into a list of fifteen figures with few comparisons.
- Missing the Adelaide exception, where cafe visits (about 39%) were lower than instant coffee purchases (50%), which is one of the most important features.
- Adding the three percentages together or treating them as parts of a whole, when one person could have done all three activities.
- Writing that people drank coffee in cafes only, when the label says they went to a cafe for coffee or tea.
- Using the past simple carelessly or switching to the present tense, even though the survey refers to a completed four-week period.
- Copying the spelling Brisban from the chart label or quoting exact figures for bars that fall between gridlines without words like about or just over.
Frequently asked questions
- Which Cambridge book is this question from?
- This bar chart about coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities is Writing Task 1 of Test 1 in Cambridge IELTS 15 Academic, published in 2020.
- Should I organise my answer by city or by habit?
- Organising by habit usually works better, because it lets you compare all five cities in each paragraph. Grouping cities with similar patterns is also acceptable if every paragraph contains comparisons.
- Do I need to mention every figure on the chart?
- No. There are fifteen bars, so select the key ones: the highest and lowest values for each habit, the Adelaide exception and the general gap between fresh and instant coffee.
- How many words should I write for this Task 1?
- Write at least 150 words; around 170-200 words is enough to give an overview and the key comparisons in about 20 minutes.
Free and timed, with a live word count, just like the computer-delivered test. Then get an instant AI band score.
The exam simulator runs on a computer. Open this page on a laptop or desktop to practise.