Mixed Bar and Table: University Applications Report (Band 9)
Band-9 Task 1 mixed report on applications bar plus acceptance table, with selectivity analysis and admissions vocabulary.
The bar chart shows university applications by subject and the table shows acceptance rates. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features.
Band-9 sample report
The visuals contrast surging demand against constrained supply across five subjects, with selectivity varying wildly by field.
Overall, applications rose in every subject while acceptance rates fell — most brutally in medicine and law. Business absorbed volume most generously; medicine rationed most severely.
The bars show demand concentrating in prestige professions: medicine drew 48,000 applications, law 41,000, business 38,000 — with engineering at 25,000 and arts at 19,000 trailing. Every subject grew roughly a third since 2015, so the hierarchy is stable even as totals swelled.
The table converts demand into odds. Medicine accepted just 8% — twelve applicants per place — tightening from 11% five years earlier. Law admitted 14%, engineering 22%, arts 31%, and business 35%, the only field accepting over a third. Selectivity thus spans more than fourfold between medicine and business, though all five tightened as applications outran places.
Demand is democratic; supply is aristocratic. Applicants distribute broadly while places concentrate narrowly, so competition intensifies fastest where prestige clusters. The system rations most fiercely exactly what students want most.
(192 words)
Why this scores Band 9
Task Achievement (9): Overview captures the demand-supply tension with the selectivity range quantified (fourfold span). Bars detailed by hierarchy; table by tier; tightening trend noted for all five.
Coherence & Cohesion (9): Demand paragraph, odds paragraph, rationing synthesis. "Concentrating," "converts," "rations" carry analytical progression.
Lexical Resource (9): Admissions precision: "constrained supply," "rationed," "applicants per place," "tightening," "democratic demand/aristocratic supply." Sharp, original, exact.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy (9): Em-dash qualifications, colon-led findings, parallel closes. Clean.
Vocabulary to steal
- surging demand, constrained supply — market tension framing
- rationed most severely — strictest allocation
- twelve applicants per place — odds made vivid
- tightening — growing selectivity (precise verb)
- democratic demand, aristocratic supply — access paradox
- rations what students want — systemic irony close
FAQs
Applications vs acceptances: what is the story?
Selectivity: applications rising faster than places means falling acceptance rates. Compute the implied rate change — that derivation is the insight.
Multiple subjects: group or list?
Group by selectivity tier: hyper-competitive, balanced, accessible. Tiers replace subject-by-subject listing with analysis.
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