Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-19

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)

This chart illustrates how often the Americans visited fast food restaurants between 2003 and 2013.

Overall, it is evident that majority of the population in the USA ate fast food at a restaurant either once a week, once or twice a month. Only a handful of people were daily visitors and a few others had never stepped a foot in a restaurant. While the others visited several times a week and some multiple times a year.

Between the year 2003 and 2013, more than 25% of the residents in the USA reportedly went to eat fast food atleast once a week or few times a month. Meanwhile, more than 15% of the people frequently visited the restaurants weekly across this time period.

There has been a small growth in frequent yearly visitors since 2003. It has increased drom 10% to 15% in 2013. Furthermore, less than 5% of the fellow Americans have never been to a restaurant. In contrast a similar percentage of population prefers to visit a restaurant daily.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response attempts to cover the main features of the chart, providing an overview and highlighting key trends such as the most common eating frequencies (once a week and once or twice a month) and minor changes over time. However, there are some inaccuracies and vague statements in the data reporting. For instance, the statement 'more than 25% of the residents in the USA reportedly went to eat fast food atleast once a week or few times a month' is imprecise since 'once a week' alone was around 31% in 2003, and the grouping of categories obscures the specific data points. Additionally, some data points are misreported or glossed over. Despite these shortcomings, the overall picture of the data is generally captured, aligning with a Band 5.5 to 6.0 performance.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to organise information into an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs. However, paragraphing is somewhat fragmented and illogical; for example, the second paragraph consists of disconnected sentences like 'While the others visited several times a week and some multiple times a year,' which are grammatically incomplete and disrupt the flow. Cohesive devices are occasionally used (e.g., 'Overall', 'Meanwhile', 'In contrast'), but referencing and linking within and between sentences are sometimes faulty, making the progression less than smooth. Overall, the structural control is typical of a Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases such as 'handful of people', 'daily visitors', and 'frequent yearly visitors'. However, there are noticeable word choice and spelling errors, such as 'atleast' (at least) and 'drom' (dropped or increased, contextually used instead of 'increased from' or a similar verb phrase, though here written as 'drom 10% to 15%'). The phrase 'stepped a foot' is also slightly unnatural compared to 'set foot'. The lexical range is minimally adequate, supporting a Band 5.5 score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures (e.g., 'While the others visited... and some multiple times a year'). However, there are several grammatical errors and awkward structures, such as sentence fragments ('While the others visited several times a week and some multiple times a year') and minor prepositions issues ('between the year 2003 and 2013' should be 'between the years'). Errors in punctuation and spelling ('drom') also occur. While these errors do not completely obscure meaning, they happen with enough frequency to hinder the flow, placing the response firmly at Band 5.0.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.