You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The bar chart below shows the percentage of students who passed their high school competency exams, by subject and gender, during the period 2010-2011.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Students passing high school competency exams, by subject and gender, 2010-2011
Sample answer:
The graph shows the percentages of boys and girls who were successful in their high school competency exams in the period from 2010 to 2011, by subject.
Overall, students of both sexes did / performed best in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Foreign Languages, including French, German and Spanish. Results for boys and girls were roughly comparable / equivalent / equal / the same in Computer Science and Mathematics. In other subjects, however, there were some significant differences.
Girls achieved by far their best results in Computer Science, with a pass rate of 56.3%, which was considerably higher / much higher / around 14% higher than the boys. The difference was even greater / more marked in Chemistry, where over 16% / more than 16% more girls passed. The only / The one / The single subject where boys’ results were better than girls was Geography where they achieved a pass rate of 30.4%, which was 10% higher than that / the figure / the percentage / the pass rate / the result for girls.
In general, we can say / we can see / the statistics show that during the period in question girls performed better in most subjects in the competency exams than boys.
