Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-30

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 graph illusrates how often people in USA ate at fast food restaurants between 2003 and 2013.

Overall, people who eat fast food once in week and once or twice in a month had the highest proportion. While, people who eat never and every day was the not the common in USA.

At a fleeting glance, in year 2003, eating fast food once in a week had accounted at 31%, it had increased slightly at 33% in 2006 before a significantly drop in 2013 at 27%. Followed by, people who eat once or twice at 30% in 2003, had a steeply fall in 2006 at 25% and in 2013 it rapidly grow at 33%.

Moreover, in 2003 people who eat several times in a week figures at 17%, grows at 20% in 2006 and again decrease at 16% in 2013. Meanwhile, people who eat fast food a few time in a year figure at 13% in 2003, while it a similar proportion in 2006 and 2013. People eating fast food everyday or never was the least common in Americans 4% or 5% in 2003 and 2% or 3% in 2006 and 2013.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response covers all parts of the task well, providing an overview and selecting key data points to report and compare. The student notes that eating fast food once a week and once or twice a month were the most common frequencies across the period. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in quoting specific figures, such as stating that eating once a week in 2013 dropped to 27% (while the chart indicates approximately 28%), and describing trends that do not strictly align with the graph (e.g., stating that eating once or twice a month 'rapidly grew at 33%' in 2013 when the rise was moderate). Nevertheless, the main features and general trends are appropriately highlighted, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to organise information into a logical progression, featuring an introductory paragraph, an overview, and body paragraphs detailing the data. However, the use of cohesive devices is often faulty or mechanical. Examples include awkward transitional phrases like 'At a fleeting glance' and 'Followed by, people who eat...', which disrupt the natural flow of reading. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion within sentences suffers from grammatical errors and clunky transitions. Referencing between ideas can be unclear, placing this response firmly in Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully using terms such as 'proportion', 'highest', and 'minimum' categories. However, there are noticeable limitations and inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'significantly drop' (instead of 'significant drop'), 'steeply fall' (instead of 'steep fall'), 'rapidly grow' (instead of 'rapid growth'), and 'figures at 17%' (instead of 'stood at 17%'). Spelling is generally correct, but word-class errors are frequent enough to restrict the score to a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though attempts at complex structures are frequently faulty. There are multiple grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('people who eat never and every day was the not the common'), incorrect prepositions ('in USA', 'once in week', 'at 2003'), and awkward verb tenses ('had accounted at', 'had a steeply fall'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency means the majority of sentences contain inaccuracies, corresponding to a Band 5.0.

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

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