Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-26

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The bar chart below shows the percentage of Australian men and women in different age groups who did regular physical activity in 2010.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The bar chart compares the proportion of various age groups of both genders of Australia who performed daily exercises in 2010.

Overall it is noted that, the young male dominated in the chart, whereas the middle aged women were more active, compared with men. Also, the middle adulthood men stood at the lowest, regarding physical activities.

The percentage of youngsters were at 52.8% of males and 47.7% of females. This proportion fell dramatically, between 25 and 34, it was at 42.2% for males and rose slightly at 48.9% for females. However, in the middle adulthood men it went from a marginal decline, accounted for 39.5%, but the women were quite active at about 52.5%.

The daily exercise in male inclined again in the age group of middle age individuals as well as the females at 43.1% and 53.3%, respectively. At 55 and onwards till 64,the percentage remained almost equal, although the elderly people of age 65 and more, including both male and female were considerably equal in their daily physical activities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the task well, providing an overview and selecting key data points to report and compare. The main features are identified accurately, such as the peak for young males and middle-aged women. However, some terminology is slightly inaccurate, referring to the data as 'daily exercises' when the chart specifies 'regular physical activity', and describing age groups somewhat loosely (e.g., 'middle adulthood men'). Despite minor flaws in data interpretation for certain age brackets, the key trends are reported adequately, aligning well with a Band 6.0 descriptor.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, overview, and body paragraphs. Paragraphing is used appropriately to group information logically. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, with awkward transitions like 'Also, the middle adulthood men stood at the lowest' and 'The daily exercise in male inclined again'. Referencing and logical progression between sentences occasionally feel abrupt, preventing the text from reaching a higher band. Overall, the structure is clear enough to follow without difficulty.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'proportion', 'dominating', 'dramatically', and 'marginal decline'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'daily exercises' instead of 'regular physical activity', 'young male dominated' instead of 'young men were the most active', and 'in male inclined again' instead of 'increased again for men'. Spelling is generally accurate, but lexical control is inconsistent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. There are, however, several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings throughout the text, such as 'the young male dominated', 'The percentage of youngsters were', and 'the elderly people of age 65 and more, including both male and female were considerably equal'. Punctuation is also slightly faulty in places (e.g., comma splices and missing commas after introductory phrases). These errors do not impede overall communication but occur frequently enough to cap the score at 5.5.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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