Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-30

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 bar charts shows the comparison for the people who ate at the fast food restaurants in the USA at six different frequencies in 2003,2006 and 2013.

Overall, eating eating fast food once a year or once or twice a month were far by the most common habitat throughout the period ,together accounting the 60% of the people each year .This is also noticeable that the people eating fast food every day or never eating it all ,involves very small or largely unchanging minorities .

In 2003 and 2006,the weekly consumption of people eating fast food was a single most popular option at approximately 30% and 33% respectively, but this fell to about 25% in 2013. Eating out once or twice a month followed a opposite pattern ,declining from roughly 30% in 2003 to 25% in 2004 before climbing in to the 33% in 2016,of which it became the leading category .

The remaining frequencies accounted by considerably fewer people. About 16% of Americans who ate fast food several times a week ,peaks to 20% in 2006 before returning to the similar level in 2013.the figure for those eating it out a few times a year slightly rose from 12% to under 15% till 2013 while fewer or less than 5% either ate everyday or never eating it all in any of the year surveyed .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have successfully identified the main trends and provided a clear overview of the data. You covered all categories and made relevant comparisons between the years. However, there are some inaccuracies in your data reporting. For example, you mention 2004 and 2016, which are not present in the provided chart (the years are 2003, 2006, and 2013). Additionally, some figures are slightly misstated, such as the claim that 'once or twice a month' accounted for 25% in 2004. Ensuring data accuracy is crucial for this task. Despite these errors, the overall summary is well-structured and addresses the prompt effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is logically organized with a clear introduction, overview, and body paragraphs. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'In 2003 and 2006', and 'The remaining frequencies'. However, the flow is occasionally hindered by mechanical errors and some awkward phrasing, such as 'This is also noticeable that the people eating...'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the main trends from the specific details. To improve, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that referencing (e.g., 'this', 'it') clearly points to the intended noun.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You have a sufficient range of vocabulary to convey the information, using terms like 'consumption', 'categories', and 'minorities'. However, there are some word choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'most common habitat' (instead of 'habit') and 'eating it out' (which is redundant). There are also minor spelling and punctuation issues, such as 'eating eating' and missing spaces after commas. To reach a higher band, focus on using more precise academic vocabulary and ensuring correct collocations when describing trends and data points.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement ('The bar charts shows'), incorrect preposition usage ('accounted by'), and awkward phrasing ('peaks to 20%'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with several missing spaces after commas and periods. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your report, they occur frequently enough to limit the score. Focusing on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and sentence construction will help improve your score.

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

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