"How to write numbers in IELTS "
The skill of presenting your thoughts in a more refined way is one of your best bets for cracking IELTS. Describing numbers is a very general but important aspect of any language. Through this article, we will be looking specifically at why it is so important for the IELTS test and what can be learned to improve the IELTS score.
Some different ways and expressions can be used to describe numbers. Through this article, we will come across
- The importance of describing numbers
- What problems could come while describing numbers
- Why are they so key in your IELTS academic examination?
The more expressions that we have will prevent us from having to repeat. It's exactly why it's essential to describe numbers and to describe numbers to show changes in the graphs or charts. The ability to describe different numbers in various ways showcases the excellent knowledge and hold of the test taker on the language and expression of thought.
Which part of the IELTS examination would you need to describe the graph?
IELTS Academic Writing Task one exactly describing numbers which provide us with that range of the language.
So we're going, beginning with talking about the length of the examination and a little bit where else you might need to recognize and acknowledge numbers in the academic IELTS. So in IELTS listening, part one of the listening will have some numbers in there. It might be a telephone number; it might be a reference number; there might be some other numbers. So you should develop the listening skill to introspect the number into words as soon as you hear it.
In the reading sections, there will be some form of description of numbers or quantities or something somewhere probably, amongst those three reading texts. We discussed listening and writing part one, which is key to the reading tasks.
In speaking, make sure to learn a range of expressions that you can use in IELTS speaking because often, in the topics that we discuss, we could be talking about the number of people that do something or how many times we've done something.
So having a few of those, maybe the fixed expressions like the collocations, that we talked about in previous session articles are key. And they're very useful and quite easy to place into your IELTS writing task.
The following are a few examples and expressions of how to describe words in different ways, which will also help in increasing the vocabulary and the skill of expression in the English language:
1. 3, 13, 30
These are quite simple numbers and can be expressed as three, thirteen, and thirty. Also, keep in mind the pronunciation and the spelling mistake for these numbers.
2. 23, 155, 8234
The numbers above are expressed as twenty three, hundred and fifty five, eight thousand two hundred and thirty four. Now keep in mind where the 'and' comes or is placed in expression. It placed after hundreds and before tens place.
3. 1/3, 1/4, 1/2
These are fractions, and they are written as a third, quarter, and half. There are other ways to express these fractions, but these are more academic.
4. 2/3, 4/5, 1/20
These are also a few more complex fractions, and they are described as two thirds, four fifths, and fifth. Let us look closely at how these are expressed as such. 2/3 define two parts of three, 4/5 is four parts of 5 or simply four over the five, and finally, 1/20 is said to be fifth because it is the fifth part of 100 or if 100 is divided into five parts is one fifth of the whole.
You can say four over five or two over three, but it would probably be more academic if you write it out as four fifths or two thirds.
5. 25%, 57.8%, 0.5%
Normally we would mention the above percentages as twenty five percent, fifty seven point eight percent, and point 5 percent or zero point five percent, which are all very correct. However, we can still enhance it to be more academic. Writing all these numbers followed by the word percent is too laborious and time taking. The primary purpose is to describe the words academically and in a non-repetitive fashion. To change the outlook of your answers, look at the following examples:
6. 50% is half
25% is quarter
0.5% or 2% is a small fraction
33% is a third
66% is two thirds
75% three quarters
10% one in ten or a tenth
Now the examples listed above are quite definite, but to do when the percentage or number given is not definite, then you can use the following words:
7. 8% becomes almost a tenth
10% is exactly one in tenth
12% is more than one in tenth
3% is a small fraction
65% is almost a third
76% more or less three quarters
23% is nearly a fifth
For example, A bar graph is presented in the task on the topic Media in the UK. The question reads as follows, the graph above gives information about types of media in the UK as a percentage usage of the media by population between 2001 to 2005. And by the amount of usage of the same over the years, 2001 and 2005. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
So we've already got some numbers in there, we've got the dates, the topic, and the percentage, and we've also got the 150-word limit, which is recommended. We would suggest you try to write just a little bit more than 170 words; that would be great. A little bit over 150 because the requirements say the minimum. That means it's the lowest it can be, so it's better to stay a little above the minimum.
We will tell you how to approach the task, starting by paraphrasing the information given. So you want to be writing and need the same information but in your words.
So we've got the graphs above which give information about types of Media in the UK. Can we paraphrase that as a percentage of the population using then between 2001 and 2005 and by the level of utilization of which type of media for 2001 and 2005.
One of the fundamental things you must include at the beginning is a paraphrase followed by an overview statement. First, describe the graph and then start comparing after the overview goes into describing the key features.
So without here using specific numbers, what do we recognize? What is the overall trend? Look carefully at the graph first. Note that the key here is, whether you see a steady increase plateau, is it staying the same or going down. As you can see, it's not a steady, gradual increase, followed by the fondness and dwelling of the people to the type of the media. So that's a key element of our overview.
Then you would go on to describe the individual key features. So, you need to look carefully at task one; and work out the sort of numbers you'll be describing, and you need to think about the question in a second.
Think and introspect about the language for the overview, ideally, without specific data, then identify those key features and find a range of structures to describe them.
Let's look at another example of a pie chart. This pie-chart depicts the preferred mode of transport by a certain amount of population. Again, the modes of transport are given in different percentages in different shades of color. Now let's see how we should go about describing numbers in the pie chart.
You can describe the modes of transport as follows:
Around a tenth of people drive themselves to work.
Nearly a fifth of the population commute via bus.
Approximately a quarter of people take the bike.
Under half of the population decides to take the metro when they commute.
I hope you had a fair idea about how to describe numbers and approach this task involving graphs, charts, etc.
FAQs
So you can begin by saying the graphs illustrate, which is present simply because you can see it and then use the past simple to refer to 2003 or 2005.
You can familiarize yourself with the task and the concept of describing numbers, and we suggest you practice and practice. You can go through various practice tests, excersies including reading passages, reading modules, and other question answers asked in the IELTS listening test, IELTS writing test, IELTS speaking test, and IELTS reading test on the MarvelIELTS.com website; and learn more about these exam sections. You can also visit our institute in Zirakpur, where our best IELTS teachers and other faculty can guide you better for your IELTS preparation.