Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-15
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The graph below gives information about the percentage of the population in four Asian countries living in cities from 1970 to 2020, with predictions for 2030 and 2040. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Student answer (Band 5.0)
The picture depicts the information regarding the population in diffferent asian countries from 1970 to 2020 and future probability for 2030 and 2040
To start with year of 1970 philippines has the highest percentage around 32% of populatiion and slightly below malaysia which stand at 30% of total population the indonesia has the lowest among all also the thailand have around 19 % of total population in 1970 coming to the next year in 1980 the indonesia started to increase in number and continously grow over the decade whereas the thailand also follow the upward trend in growth of population.
Moving to the further details,the year of 1990 philippines show sudden jump in population and overtakes the malaysia for shorter period of time and started to decline in 2010 also in coming years indonesia overtakes the malaysia and reach to over 60% in total population in 2030 but the majority of growth is more for the malaysia and remain in highest number in future
Overall, the graph describe the percentage of asian countries in population growth and show the miniorty as well as majority in future among the four countries
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response attempts to summarise the main features of the graph, but it suffers from significant misinterpretations of the data and lacks a clear, cohesive overview. For example, the student states that in 1970 the Philippines had the highest percentage and Malaysia stood at 30%, which is relatively accurate, but the descriptions of later trends contain confusing claims, such as Indonesia overtaking Malaysia to reach over 60% in 2030 (Indonesia actually reaches 60.5% in 2030, but the comparative narrative is muddled). Furthermore, the overview provided at the end is overly vague ('describe the percentage of asian countries in population growth') and fails to highlight the key overarching trends, such as Malaysia's dominance throughout the period and the steady urbanisation across all four nations. This places the response in Band 5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The text lacks proper paragraphing, being presented as a block of text with only an introductory sentence and a brief concluding sentence, making it difficult to follow the logical progression. Cohesive devices are either missing or misused, relying on rudimentary transitions like 'To start with', 'coming to the next year', and 'Moving to the further details'. Referencing is also confusing at times, making it hard to track which country is being discussed. There is no clear overall progression of ideas, which restricts the coherence score to Band 4.5, rounded to 5.0 for overall readability.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is quite basic and repetitive ('percentage', 'population', 'increase', 'growth'), and there are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, including 'diffferent', 'asian', 'populatiion', 'indonesia' (capitalisation issues), and 'miniorty'. The student attempts some less common phrasing, such as 'future probability' and 'sudden jump', but the limitations in range and frequent lexical inaccuracies constrain the score to Band 5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0
The text is characterised by severe punctuation and sentence structure issues. The response relies heavily on a few extremely long, run-on sentences connected by comma splices and conjunctions (e.g., 'To start with year of 1970 philippines has the highest percentage around 32% of populatiion and slightly below malaysia which stand at 30%...'). There is a lack of control over basic punctuation like periods and capital letters. Complex structures are attempted but are generally faulty due to missing verbs and incorrect agreement. This demonstrates the characteristics of Band 4.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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