Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-03

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 illustrates the proportion of fast food ate by people in resturants in usa since 2003 to 2013.

overall, people who liked to ate it every day in 2003 were less then 5%and in 2006 , the ratio decreased from 4% to 3%. similarly, in 2013 the ratio remained unchange. people who liked to ate fastfood in resturants several time in a week raged between 15% to 20 % from 2003 to 2013. on the other hand, people whom prefered to ate fast food once a week between the era of 2003 to 2013 were above of 30%. likewise, people those prefered fast food once or twice a month had ratio ranging towards 30% in 2003, 25% in 2006 and 33% in 2013 respectively. Therefore, the ratio of a few times in a year were 13% in 2003 and 15,15% in 2006 and 2013 respectively. However, people those never went at resturants of fastfood were 5% in 2003, 4% in 2006 and 4% in 2013.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the task only partially by attempting to report the data across different categories and years. While an overview is attempted at the beginning with the word 'overall', the information presented lacks full development and contains inaccuracies in reporting specific figures. For example, the student states that the proportion for eating fast food every day in 2003 was less than 5% (which is close to the 4% shown in the chart), but the reporting of other trends becomes repetitive and lacks a cohesive overview of the most significant main features, such as the overall dominance of weekly consumption. Furthermore, some data points are slightly misreported or awkwardly expressed, reflecting limited development and a partially unclear position.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some organisation present in the text, as the writer attempts to follow the categories presented in the chart sequentially. However, there is no clear overall progression or logical structure guiding the reader through the main trends. Cohesive devices are used minimally and repetitively, such as 'on the other hand', 'likewise', and 'therefore', which are often employed mechanically rather than to show genuine logical relationships. Additionally, the text suffers from a lack of proper paragraphing, being condensed into a single block of text rather than separated into an introduction, overview, and body paragraphs, which hinders the readability and flow of the response.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary range is limited and minimally adequate for the task, with noticeable errors in word choice and spelling that cause some difficulty for the reader. There are frequent lexical and spelling inaccuracies, such as 'ate' instead of 'eat' or 'consumption', 'resturants' instead of 'restaurants', 'usa', and 'unchange' instead of 'unchanged'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary related to data reporting like 'proportion', 'ratio', and 'ranging', but these are often used inaccurately or repetitively. Collocations are occasionally weak, such as 'ratio ranging towards 30%', which restricts the lexical score to this level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a very limited range of sentence structures, relying mostly on simple or repetitive complex attempts that are frequently faulty. There are frequent errors in grammar, punctuation, and word forms. Examples include tense and agreement issues such as 'people who liked to ate it', 'less then 5%and', and missing capitalisation for proper nouns like 'usa'. Prepositions and relative clauses are also handled inaccurately, as seen in phrases like 'people whom prefered to ate fast food' and 'people those never went at resturants'. These frequent errors require the reader to decode the meaning, though basic communication is still achieved.

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