Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-17

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 6.0)

The line graph illustrates the proportion of population lived in cities in four different countries - the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia from 1970 to 2020 along with projection for 2030 to 2040.

In 1970, approximately 30% of the population in both Philippines and Malaysia lived in cities, whereas around 18% and only 13% were lived in Thailand and Indonesia respectively. Over the two decade, the Philippines remained almost unchanged until 1980 at 33% before crossing 45% in 1990. Meanwhile, Malaysia also gradually increased to nearly 45% in 1990. From 1990, Malaysia had experienced the most dramatically increased. Its urban population grew from about 43% to 60% in 2000 and then to 70% in 2010, before reaching to 73% in 2020. Malasiya is expected to remain the top country with the highest number of population till 2040.The Philippines, whereas, faced a significant downfall from more than 45% in 1990 to 40% in 2010. After this downfall, it subsequently recoverd in to 46% in 2020. It is predicted to steadily grow by almost 7% in 2040.

Thailand and Indonesia had never encounter the phase of declined from 1970 to 2020 and forcasted to have upward trend only in 2030 and 2040. Indonesia surpassed the Thailand during 2000 year and Philippines betweem 2010 and 2020, reaching to 46% in 2020. While, Thailand remained almost stable between 27% to 31% from 1990 to 2020. Once the year of 2020 over, it is expected to suddenly go up to 46% in 2040.

Overall, all the four countries will have the growth of urbanization in cities, but most of the growth will be observed in Malaysia.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student presents a good overview of the main trends and successfully selects and reports key features, such as Malaysia leading urban population growth and the general upward trajectory across all four countries. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in citing specific data points from the graph (e.g., stating the Philippines dropped to 40% in 2010 when the chart shows around 42.5%, and slight discrepancies in reading percentages for other years). Despite these minor misreadings of the graph, the response covers all parts of the task well with clear comparisons, earning a solid Band 6.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The text is logically organised into clear paragraphs with an introduction, body paragraphs grouped by country comparisons, and a concise overall summary. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader through the data (e.g., 'Meanwhile', 'From 1990', 'Overall'), though some referencing is slightly clunky or mechanical (e.g., 'The Philippines, whereas, faced...'). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different temporal phases and groups of countries, maintaining a clear overall progression throughout the essay.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for an Academic Task 1 response, employing terms such as 'proportion', 'urban population', 'projection', and 'urbanization'. There are several word choice and grammatical collocation errors (e.g., 'proportion of population lived' instead of 'living', 'most dramatically increased' instead of 'increase', 'recoverd in to', and 'forcasted'). These errors do not impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses of time and prediction (e.g., 'Malaysia is expected to remain...', 'Once the year of 2020 over...'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the response, including tense confusion ('were lived', 'had never encounter'), preposition misuse, and awkward phrasing ('Once the year of 2020 over'). While these errors do not prevent the general meaning from being understood, they prevent the score from reaching Band 6.5.

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