IELTS Writing task 1

Question 1

America’s total student debt, ? over $1.5trn, is ? than the national borrowing of most countries. It has ? [increased fivefold] in size since 2004, ? both borrowing on credit cards and car finance.

Answer 1

America’s total student debt, at over $1.5trn, is larger than the national borrowing of most countries. It has quintupled in size since 2004, overtaking both borrowing on credit cards and car finance.

I’ve highlighted a few useful features in the two sentences:

adding a statistic between two commas using “at”
a comparative: larger than
cohesion (referencing) using the pronoun “it”
quintupled = increased fivefold
overtaking: you may be able to use this word when describing a graph
comparing and contrasting using “both… and…”