Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-02

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 5.0)

The bar chart compares the percentage of people that are frequently visiting in food restaurants to eat fast food in the United States of America from 2003 to 2013.

Overall, the fast food eating trend for once a week or twice a month accounted for the higher, while the figure for everyday and people who are avoiding eat fast food shared the less percentage. The percentage of people eating few times per year have almost the same proportion with slight fluctuation.

Looking at the graph in more detail, the figure for people eating fast food once a week and twice a month are stable at approximately 34% in 2006 and 2013. Meanwhile, the people eating junk food several times per week stood at around 20% in 2006, dropping to 16%in 2013 before recovering to 17% in 2003 respectively. The people eating fast food everyday and the people who are avoiding eat junk food constitutes less in almost every year approximately 5%. A notable change is observed around 34%, declined sharply to 25% in 2006 for the people visiting once a week or twice a month.

In contrast, although the people who are visiting a few times per year in food restaurants to eat fast food around 13% in 2003, and become levelled off for almost two years 15% in 2006 and 2013.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the task only partially, presenting a summary of the bar chart with noticeable limitations. While you attempt to cover the main categories, some key details are under-developed or inaccurately reported. For instance, stating that the figures for once a week and twice a month are 'stable at approximately 34% in 2006 and 2013' misreads the data, as 'once a week' and 'once or twice a month' are distinct categories with different trends. Furthermore, the overview lacks clarity regarding the overall progression of the data over the ten-year span. To move to a higher band, you need to select and accurately report the most prominent features while making clearer, more precise comparisons without misinterpreting the chart's categories.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some organisation evident in how you structure the response into an introduction, an overview, and detail paragraphs, but there is no clear overall progression. Cohesive devices are sometimes inaccurate or repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on transitional phrases like 'Meanwhile,' and 'In contrast,' which do not always connect the ideas logically. Additionally, referencing can be unclear, as seen in sentences like 'A notable change is observed around 34%...' where the subject of the change is confusingly tied to a percentage rather than a category. Paragraphing is attempted, but internal logical flow requires strengthening. To improve, ensure that each sentence builds clearly upon the previous one and that cohesive devices are used with greater precision to guide the reader seamlessly through the data.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic topic of fast food consumption. You attempt some less common items such as 'fluctuation' and 'recovering', but there are noticeable errors in word choice and collocation that cause some difficulty for the reader, such as 'are frequently visiting in food restaurants to eat fast food' and 'people who are avoiding eat fast food'. There are also awkward expressions like 'shared the less percentage'. To reach a higher band, you should expand your range of vocabulary and use precise terms for data reporting, ensuring that collocations and word forms are natural and accurate throughout the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a very limited range of structures, and your attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors that can cause difficulty for the reader, including tense inconsistencies and preposition errors, such as 'the figure for people eating fast food once a week and twice a month are' (agreement error) and 'eating few times per year' (missing article). You also struggle with relative clauses and verb patterns, as seen in 'people that are frequently visiting' and 'avoiding eat fast food'. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence structures, ensuring correct subject-verb agreement, and reducing the frequency of grammatical errors in complex sentence attempts.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.