Question: The table above shows the salaries of secondary/high school teachers in 2009. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Band 8+ Sample Answer:
(Intro & Overview) Overall, teachers in Luxembourg, Japan and Korea enjoyed higher maximum salaries but it took them significantly longer to reach the highest possible incomes. By contrast, although their counterparts in Australia and Denmark only needed around a decade to reach a top salary, the maximum earnings were lower.
(Detail 1) Secondary and/or high school teachers in Luxembourg could make $80,000 per year in their very first year and up to $119,000 15 years’ later, and this figure could climb to $132,000 by the 30th year. Japanese and Korean teachers, on the other hand, had similar starting salaries of $34,000 and $30,000 respectively. Subsequently , teacher salaries could nearly double in Japan while increasing by half in Korea in the following 15 years. Noticeably, Japanese teachers had to work up to 37 years to reach the top salary of $86,000, while Korean teachers needed 34 years to earn the maximum income of $62,000.
(Detail 2) In 2009, teachers in Australia had the lowest starting income, at $28,000, whereas their Danish counterparts made $45,000 which was the second highest starting salary among the five countries. However, it took teachers in these countries only 9 years to maximise their earnings, but their top salaries ($48,000 and $54,000 respectively) were very modest compared with the other nations. (222 words)
Words: Student essay, corrected & upgraded by Nick Kemp, former IELTS examiner.
Image: Cambridge