Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-21
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The chart below shows how frequently people in the USA ate in fast food restaurants between 2003 and 2013.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The green bar graph illustrates how often individuals in USA ate unhealthy food in restaurants from 2003 to 2013.
Overall, it can be seen that, eating of fast food once or twice a month was recorded as highest. While, every day eating in restaurants was lowest.
According to graph, In 2003, eating fast food in hotels once a week was highest about 32% which was slightly increase and reached at approx 37%. Whereas, it was drastically decrease and stayed 27%, by 2013. Moreover, once or twice was at 30% in 2003 which was dropped by 5% during 2006. Meanwhile, it get sudden rise and peaked nearly 38 per cont. Additionally, there was people who ate several times a week nearly 17% which had fall by 3% in 2013.
Furthermore, by 2003, there was only 13% people eat a few times a year which was slowly grew up at 15%. it was remain steady till 2013 at 15 per cent. In addition to, there was two type of people every day eater and Never which was around 4% and 5% respectively. After that, both has been dropped at 3% and remain constant through out the period.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response covers the main features of the chart, including the trends for various frequencies of fast food consumption. However, the analysis is somewhat mechanical and lacks a clear, cohesive overview of the most significant trends. While the student identifies the highest and lowest categories, the reporting of specific data points is occasionally inaccurate or confusing (e.g., the description of the 'once a week' category is contradictory). The response would benefit from a more analytical approach that groups trends rather than listing them chronologically, which would better highlight the key differences between the categories over the decade.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or misused. For example, 'According to graph' lacks an article, and 'In addition to' is used incorrectly at the start of a sentence. The progression of ideas within paragraphs is sometimes disjointed, making it difficult to follow the comparison between different years. While there is an attempt to use linking words, they are not always employed with the flexibility or precision required for a higher band score.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'every day eating in restaurants was lowest' and 'per cont' (a spelling error). The student relies on basic verbs like 'get' and 'grew up' rather than more academic alternatives like 'experienced a rise' or 'increased'. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of sophisticated vocabulary and the presence of spelling errors limit the score in this criterion.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response contains a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout. Common issues include missing articles ('According to graph'), incorrect verb tenses ('it was drastically decrease'), and subject-verb agreement errors ('there was people'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to distract the reader and indicate a lack of control over more complex grammatical forms.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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