Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-01

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 represented bar graph displayed a proportion individual frequency of a consume junk food at restaurants in the USA between 2003 to 2013.Evidently, The pattern had fluctuation through out 10 year frame time.

Resident who visited restaurants in one a week was highest in 2003 significantly at 31% which rose marginal and slight decreased to over a quarter in 2013.In contrast, once or twice a month visited had 30% in 2003 and declined to 5% in 2006 before a drastic rose to roughly at 33% in 2013.

On the other hand, a few times a year visited habitation had went up from 2003 to 2013 at from 12% to 15%, respectively. However, people visit several times a week had fluctuation show from 2003 to 2013 accounted from 18% to 16%, correspondently. Everyday and never visited had under 5% of people in restaurants.

overall, once or twice a month had largest percentages of the individual visited, however everyday and never had least visited in restaurants.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features and making comparisons across the given years. The overview is present at the end, though it is slightly underdeveloped and misses some of the finer nuances. Key trends, such as the peak in eating out once a week at 31% in 2003 and the general stability in other categories, are highlighted, but some data points contain minor inaccuracies, such as misreporting the 2003 figure for 'once or twice a month' or confusing percentages, reflecting a partial rather than fully precise reading of the visual data. The response successfully attempts to cover all categories, but certain trends lack full extension and clarity.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

There is a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the response into an introduction, body paragraphs, and an overview. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, with abrupt transitions between sentences and paragraphs (e.g., 'On the other hand, a few times a year visited habitation had went up...'). Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical progression within paragraphs stumbles due to awkward phrasing. Paragraphing is used, but the internal flow of ideas needs better cohesive control to achieve a clearer logical progression throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and barely adequate for the task. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'fluctuation' and 'percentages', but this is marred by noticeable word choice errors, wrong word forms, and collocation issues (e.g., 'consume junk food', 'visited habitation', 'drastic rose'). There are also spelling and lexical slips that cause some difficulty for the reader, such as 'correspondently' instead of 'respectively'. These errors reflect a restricted range of vocabulary control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a limited range of structures, relying mostly on simple sentences alongside some attempts at complex forms that are frequently faulty. There are noticeable errors in verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, articles, and prepositions within grammatical patterns (e.g., 'The represented bar graph displayed', 'people visit several times a week had fluctuation', 'people in restaurants'). Punctuation and capitalisation errors also appear, such as missing spaces after periods. These errors persist throughout the text, though they rarely impede overall communication entirely.

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

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