Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-23
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 graph illustrates how often the US citizens ate in fast food restaurants from 2003 to 2013.
Overall, throughout these 10 years, the rate of meals eaten stayed quit steady. The proportion of the two extremes : people eat fast food every day or have never tried it are very low. In average, Americans tend to eat in fast food restaurants once a week or twice a month.
During this period of 10 years less than 5 % were eating every day in quick-service restaurants or have never tried. The proportion of persons in both cases stayed flat over these 10 years.
Regarding the citizens with a frequency of several times a week or once a week, they had an evolution from 2003 to 2006 with an increase from 16 % to 20% and 31% to 33% respectively.
However the year of 2006 present also a sharp decrease from 2003 (5% less) for people eating only once or twice a month. Finally, there was a dramatic rise in 2013 reaching one third of the population eating conveniance food.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student successfully addresses the main task requirements by summarizing the overall trends and reporting key features from the chart, such as the extremes (eating every day or never) and the most common frequencies (once a week or twice a month). An overview is provided, and some comparisons are made between the years. However, some of the data reporting contains inaccuracies. For instance, the text claims that several times a week increased from 16% to 20% in 2003 to 2006, whereas the chart shows 17% in 2003. Additionally, some statements regarding the details are slightly vague or generalized. Overall, it satisfies the basic demands of Task 1, but tighter precision in data reporting would elevate the score.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is arranged into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction, followed by an overview, and subsequent body paragraphs detailing specific trends. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as "Overall," "During this period," "Regarding the citizens," and "However." However, paragraphing is somewhat fragmented, with very short single-sentence paragraphs that disrupt the natural flow. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the punctuation and grammar breaks around phrases like "The proportion of the two extremes : people eat fast food..." Despite these minor mechanical flaws, the text presents a coherent overall arrangement.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases such as "quick-service restaurants," "conveniance food" (misspelled as convenience), and "proportion." There are several lexical errors and inappropriate word choices, such as "rate of meals eaten stayed quit steady" ('quite') and "the year of 2006 present also a sharp decrease" ('presents'). Spelling errors like 'quit' instead of 'quite' and 'conveniance' instead of 'convenience' occur, but they do not seriously impede communication.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The response includes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at relative clauses and prepositional phrases. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several structural errors, such as "people eat fast food every day or have never tried it are very low" (subject-verb agreement error with the plural/singular mismatch) and "In average" instead of 'On average'. Punctuation errors also appear, such as spaces before colons. While the meaning is generally understandable, the frequency of errors places this response firmly in Band 5.5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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