Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-05

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 4.0)

The chart illustrates the frequency of eating at fast food restaurants across USA between 2003 to 2013.

Overall, all categorizes experienced fluctuations throughout the period. Proportion of people in once a week started from lowest and reaching at peak then goes down.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

The response is severely under length, containing only forty-two words against the required minimum of one hundred and fifty. Because of this extreme brevity, the task is addressed only minimally. While the writer successfully identifies the chart topic and attempts a rudimentary overview, the selection of main features is extremely sparse and inaccurate. For instance, the statement that the category for eating once a week started from the lowest point and reached a peak before declining contradicts the visual data, where this category actually started at thirty-one percent and fell over the period. Ideas are heavily under-developed with almost no detail or data provided from the chart.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The text demonstrates a basic attempt at overall organization by opening with an introductory sentence and following with an overview paragraph. However, the progression of ideas is disjointed due to the extreme brevity of the response. Cohesive devices are largely absent, and referencing is faulty, such as the abrupt transition into the second paragraph without clear signposting. Paragraphing is attempted by separating the introduction from the overview, but the lack of body paragraphs prevents any logical development of information or cohesive flow across the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, with noticeable errors that indicate a limited range for this task. Words are occasionally misused or missing, such as writing "categorizes" instead of "categories" and omitting necessary prepositions and articles, as seen in "across USA" and "Proportion of people in once a week". The writer attempts some less common terms like "fluctuations", but word choice and collocation are frequently inaccurate, restricting the precision needed to describe statistical trends effectively.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The grammatical range is extremely limited, consisting of only a few simple and flawed sentence structures. There are frequent errors in verb tenses, articles, and prepositions, such as the omission of the definite article before "USA" and the awkward phrasing "reaching at peak then goes down", which blends incorrect verb forms and prepositions. Punctuation is basic, and the high density of grammatical errors in such a short text significantly impedes clear communication.

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

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