Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-04

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 illustates how regularly redients of america ate in fast food restaurants from 2003 to 2013.

Overall, highest amount of american's prefer visiting resturants once a week or twice in a month. Meanwhile very low individuals never visited resturants over the period.

Mostly residents of america usually went to resturant once a week as stood at 32 % in 2003 went up to around 37% in 2006 initally proprtion incease but in 2013 it fall to 28%.In contrrast people going twice a month dramatically declined from 2003 to 2006 from aorund 30% to 25% respectively,then increased substantailly to 40% in 2013.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

The response falls well short of the minimum word length requirement, containing only 103 words instead of the required 150, which severely limits its ability to address all parts of the prompt adequately. While the writer attempts to present an overview and select some main features, the information provided is rather limited and contains inaccuracies regarding the data. For instance, the student states that the proportion for visiting restaurants once a week went up to 37 percent in 2006 and fell to 28 percent in 2013, whereas the chart shows figures around 33 percent and 28 percent respectively. The overview is also restricted to a brief second sentence, and key trends over the decade are only partially covered. To improve, the student must write a fully developed response that meets the length requirement, accurately reports data from the visual, and provides a clearer, more comprehensive summary of the main features and comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates some organisation with an attempt at an introduction, an overall statement, and body details, but there is no clear overall progression. Paragraphing is rudimentary and the text feels disjointed due to the lack of sufficient and accurate cohesive devices. While the writer uses basic transition markers like 'Meanwhile' and 'In contrrast', referencing is sometimes unclear, and sentences are joined awkwardly without proper logical links. The progression of ideas stumbles between sentences, making the overall arrangement mechanical rather than fluid. To achieve a higher band, the student needs to group information more logically, ensure that each paragraph has a clear thematic focus, and use a wider range of cohesive devices smoothly to guide the reader through the data comparisons.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and basic, just about adequate for the task, but heavily impacted by noticeable errors in spelling, word choice, and word form. Throughout the text, there are multiple misspellings and lexical slips, such as 'illustates' instead of illustrates, 'redients' instead of residents, 'american's' instead of Americans, and 'resturants' instead of restaurants. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'substantailly' (which is also misspelled), but the high frequency of errors causes some difficulty for the reader and prevents the response from reaching a higher band. To improve in this area, the student must focus on accurate spelling, improve word forms, and use precise vocabulary related to data trends, such as replacing basic verbs with more appropriate terms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences alongside a few clumsy attempts at complex forms. Frequent errors are present in tense usage, subject-verb agreement, and missing articles or prepositions. For example, the sentence 'highest amount of american's prefer visiting resturants' lacks necessary articles and contains agreement issues, while 'initally proprtion incease but in 2013 it fall' demonstrates poor control over past tense verbs and clause structure. These frequent grammatical errors can cause some difficulty for the reader. To lift the score, the writer needs to expand the repertoire of complex sentence structures, ensure correct verb tenses when reporting past data, and pay closer attention to basic grammatical accuracy, including subject-verb agreement and articles.

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

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