Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-21
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 5.0)
The barchart illustartes the frequency of eating food among people in the USA between 2003 and 2013.
Overall eating fast food once a week and once or twice a month was most common during the period. In contrants,easting fast food was the least common every day. The Quantity of people eating fast food several times a week changed during the period.
In 2003, 4% peoples eat fast food every day, While around 17% peoples eat fast food several times a week, The highest quantity of peoples at about 31% ate fast food once a week,and 30% of the peoples ate fast food once or twice a month, only about 13% of the peoples ate fast food few time a year.
In 2006, People about at 20% ate fast food several times a week, and around 33% of the peoples ate fast food once a week, once a month or twice of the month 25% of the peoples ate fast food, and about at 15% of the peoples ate fast food a few times a year,and 5% of the peoples in 2003, and 4% of the peoples in 2006 and 2013 that never fast food.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The student attempts to address the prompt by summarising the main features of the chart regarding the frequency of eating fast food in the USA between 2003 and 2013. An overview is attempted, noting that eating once a week or once/twice a month was most common. However, the response suffers from several inaccuracies in data reporting. For instance, the student states that 5% of people never ate fast food in 2003, whereas the chart shows around 4.5%, and misreports several other percentages and categories, such as conflating the 2006 data with 2003 near the end. The progression of ideas becomes unclear and confused in the final paragraph due to numerical errors and run-on structures. Consequently, the task is only partially covered, placing it within the Band 5 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The response is divided into brief paragraphs, but the overall organisation lacks a clear logical progression. Cohesive devices are minimal and often misused or mechanical, such as 'In contrants' and repetitive use of comma splices to link clauses. Referencing is frequently unclear, making it difficult for the reader to follow which year or category certain data points belong to, particularly in the chaotic final paragraph. Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal structure of the paragraphs does not support a coherent flow of information. These issues align closely with the Band 5 criteria for Coherence and Cohesion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple phrases like 'eating fast food', 'people', 'quantity of people', and 'times a week'. There are numerous spelling mistakes ('barchart', 'illustartes', 'contrants', 'easting', 'peoples') and awkward word choices, such as 'The Quantity of people' instead of 'The proportion' or 'The percentage'. Less common lexical items are rarely attempted successfully, and errors in word form and choice are noticeable throughout. This vocabulary profile reflects a Band 5 level of lexical resource.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar and punctuation is weak. There are frequent errors, including missing auxiliary verbs, incorrect prepositions ('ate fast food a few time a year'), and persistent capitalization and punctuation issues (such as commas used instead of periods, and run-on sentences). For example, sentences like 'In 2006, People about at 20% ate fast food...' demonstrate flawed syntactic structures and faulty word order. These frequent errors cause difficulty for the reader at times, placing the grammar score solidly at Band 5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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