IELTS Task 1: University Subject Choices (Bar Chart)
The Task
The bar chart below shows the percentage of students who chose five different subjects at a university in 2010 and 2023. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
Sample Band 8 Response
149 wordsModel answer written by EduForEveryone — for guidance only. Not an official examiner response.
The bar chart compares the percentage of students choosing five university subjects in 2010 and 2023.
Overall, Computer Science saw the most significant growth and became the most popular subject by 2023, whereas the Arts experienced the steepest decline. Engineering and Law, by contrast, remained completely stable.
In 2010, Business was the leading choice at 28%, but its share fell to 21% by 2023. Over the same period, Computer Science rose sharply from 17% to 31%, overtaking Business to become the single most popular field and registering the largest increase of any subject.
The Arts followed the opposite trajectory, declining markedly from 18% to just 11% and ending as the least popular option. Engineering and Law, meanwhile, showed no change whatsoever, holding steady at 22% and 15% respectively across the thirteen-year period. The overall picture is one of growing demand for technology-related study at the expense of the humanities.