Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-25

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 the information about how frequently the USA people ate in fast food restaurats for the years 2003 to 2013.

Overall, by observing the data, it can be seen that in 2006 and 2013 most laymen desided to eat in once a week or once or twice a month.

Looking at the porsion for consuption every day in restaurants, it stated at least stage at 4% in 2003, and 3% for remaining both years. The people eat several times a week contained more than 15% of the proportion which rise gradually in 2006 at 20% and fell significantly in 2013 for nearly 16%. By far the most highest persentage contained for people of consuption in once a week, where in 2003 it was 31%, rose by 33% in 2006 and gradually decreased to 27% in 2016.

Once or twice a month eating outside stated at 30% in 2003 which fell to 25% in 2006 and significantly increased to 33% in 2016. 12% of US resedent ate a few times a year outside in 2003, where the consumers rose to 15% for both of the years. There were 5% of the population who never consumed food from restaurants in 2003, and that portion even decreased to 4% for remaining both years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student covers all the main features of the chart, providing a general overview and reporting data across the three years (2003, 2006, and 2013). The response attempts to make relevant comparisons, such as noting that most people ate out once a week or once or twice a month. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in reading the specific data points compared to the provided chart (for instance, stating that once a week was 27% in 2016, whereas the chart is for 2013, and mentioning 33% in 2016). Despite these slight reading discrepancies and minor confusion with the final year, the main trends are adequately captured. Therefore, a solid Band 6.0 is awarded for adequately addressing all parts of the task with relevant, though slightly imprecise, details.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response is structured into distinct paragraphs, starting with an introduction, moving to an overview, and then detailing specific categories in the body paragraphs. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas (e.g., 'Overall', 'Looking at', 'By far the most'), although some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive ('where in 2003 it was...', 'where the consumers rose...'). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the overview from the body details, establishing a coherent overall arrangement. However, the referencing and logical progression within sentences can occasionally feel clumsy or halting. This corresponds well to a Band 6.0 descriptor for coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'proportion', 'consumed', 'significantly', and 'gradually'. However, there are several noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'restaurats', 'desided', 'porsion', 'consuption', 'persentage', and 'resedent'. Furthermore, awkward phrasings like 'most laymen desided' and 'the people eat several times' detract from precision. These lexical inaccuracies and non-standard collocations place the performance firmly in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range, where vocabulary is adequate for the task but frequent minor errors occur.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and subordinate structures ('where the consumers rose', 'There were 5% of the population who never consumed'). However, control over grammar is inconsistent. There are numerous grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('the USA people' instead of 'people in the USA'), incorrect prepositional usage ('eat in once a week'), tense confusion ('stated at least stage' instead of 'started at'), and subject-verb agreement issues. While these errors do not completely obscure the overall meaning, they are frequent enough to impede smooth reading. This reflects the Band 5.5 descriptors.

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

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