Describe Image: a simple structure that fits any picture

Describe Image usually goes wrong in one of two ways: people go quiet halfway through the time because they have run out of things to say, or they recite a memorised paragraph that fits last week's picture and not the one on the screen. A simple, flexible frame fixes the first problem and avoids the second.

A frame in three parts

Think of your answer as three parts, with a few sentences for each:

1. What it shows. One sentence naming the picture and its topic, taken from the title.
2. The key features. Two or three sentences: the highest and lowest items, a clear comparison, a trend or a pattern.
3. A short closing point. One sentence on what stands out overall, or what the picture seems to suggest.

The labels are for you, not for saying aloud. Content is judged on how well you describe the main features and how they relate to each other, so the middle part carries most of the weight. Keep the closing point modest. Describe what the picture shows and do not invent reasons it does not give: "this suggests" is safer than "because".

Use the preparation time to scan

You get a short preparation time before the recording starts. The exact length is on the screen and in Pearson's current test guide. You cannot read everything, so look for these, in this order:

• The title: it gives you your opening sentence.
• The labels and units: what is being measured, and in what (hours, per cent, millions)?
• The highest and the lowest: your two safest details.
• The trend or pattern: rising, falling, a big gap between two groups, one surprise.
• Your last sentence: decide it now, so you can finish cleanly.

Choose two or three details you can say clearly. Reading out every bar uses your time on detail and leaves nothing for the overall point, and the colour of the bars rarely matters, so skip the decoration.

Starters, not scripts

A script is a finished paragraph with a few blanks. A frame is a set of starters that you complete from the picture in front of you. Vary them from one attempt to the next:

• To open: "This chart shows...", "The graph compares...", "The picture illustrates..."
• For features: "The highest figure is...", "The lowest is...", "By contrast...", "The most noticeable difference is..."
• To close: "Overall...", "What stands out is...", "This suggests that..."

Memorised responses can be penalised, and they never fit exactly anyway. A quick test: if you could deliver your answer without looking at the picture, it is a script and not a description.

Say the numbers, and keep talking

Say numbers as you would to a friend. 6.5 is "six point five" or "six and a half", 40% is "forty per cent", 1,200 is "one thousand two hundred", and 2.3 million is "two point three million". Check the unit before you speak, because "four" and "four million" are very different statements. Words such as "just under", "a little over" and "roughly" are fine when a figure is awkward.

If you reach the end of your points early, do not repeat yourself and do not fall silent. Add one more comparison from the picture: "The youngest group does just over twice as much as the forty-one to sixty group."

A worked example

This is an illustrative bar chart with invented figures: average hours of exercise per week by age group in an imaginary town. The four bars read 16 to 25 (6.5 hours), 26 to 40 (4 hours), 41 to 60 (3 hours) and over 60 (5 hours). One possible answer:

The three lines are the three parts of the frame. The whole answer is about ninety words, which is a comfortable length at a steady pace, but check your own recording against the timer you will see on screen.

Practise it today

1. Find a chart in a newspaper, a textbook or an online report, and cover everything around it.
2. Scan it for about half a minute using the list above. Write down only two numbers and your closing sentence.
3. Record yourself describing it for the full time that the practice test allows.
4. Listen back. Is there any silence longer than a second or two? Which part of the frame sounded thin?
5. Describe the same picture again tomorrow with different starters.

Do that routine once today with one real chart, and keep the recording. When the frame feels natural, try a Describe Image task in the practice tests on this site to see it under timed conditions. For the language that changes from one picture type to another, read bar charts, line graphs, maps and processes.