Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · 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 4.5)

According to this graph about 30% of people in united states ate fast food about once in a weak in 2003. Moreover; 12% people are those who take fast food few times in a year. In 2006 only 2% people willingly eat fast food on regular base, also 20% people ate fast food several times in a weak. Only 4% people never eat fast food in USA. Graph depicts that some people in US A ate fast food once in a weak. Additionally; about 31% people ate fast food preferably once in a year or month and 15% people ate fast food few times a year. About 26% people ate fast food once in a weak. Estimated 4% ratio of the people were those who never ate the fast food at all. Furthermore 2-3% of the people ate fast food on everyday. Overall this graph elaborated different era's fast food consumption rate by illustrating with percentage.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

The response addresses the task only partially. While the student attempts to report some data points from the chart, the selection of information is disjointed and repetitive. For instance, the writer mentions percentages for eating fast food 'once in a weak' multiple times across the text with conflicting figures (such as 'about 30%' in the first sentence and 'about 26%' later). Furthermore, the overview provided at the end ('Overall this graph elaborated different era's fast food consumption rate by illustrating with percentage') fails to highlight the key trends or meaningful overall comparisons between 2003 and 2013, which is required for a more complete response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

Information and ideas are not arranged coherently. The response lacks a clear overall progression, jumping randomly between years and categories without a logical structure. For example, the student moves from 2003 data to 2006, back to general statements about categories, and then re-visits various years inconsistently. Paragraphing is not used effectively, as almost the entire text is lumped into a single block. Additionally, the use of cohesive devices is mechanical and sometimes faulty, with inappropriate punctuation such as semicolons used incorrectly to link fragmented thoughts.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and repetitive, with noticeable errors that cause some difficulty for the reader. The student relies heavily on basic phrasing and commits frequent spelling and word-choice errors, such as spelling 'week' as 'weak', writing 'take fast food', and using 'regular base' instead of 'regular basis'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary are constrained by these inaccuracies, resulting in a minimally adequate range that struggles to convey precise statistical information smoothly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

There is a very limited range of sentence structures, consisting mostly of simple and repetitive statements. Attempts at more complex formulations are frequently faulty, leading to errors in grammar and punctuation that can cause difficulty for the reader. Issues include missing articles (e.g., 'in united states'), incorrect prepositions, and poor punctuation handling, such as improper semicolon usage and capitalizing words incorrectly. Frequent errors in basic subject-verb agreement and singular/plural forms are also present throughout the text.

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