Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-06

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)

As the charts explain of the frequency of people eating at fast food restaurants in us from [redacted phone]

first we'll talk about 2003 time period as the chart shows in that period of time daily eaters are not that much approximately 4% but the people who eat several times a week have a percentage of 17.people who eat once a week are approx of 31% and once or twice a month eaters are up to 30% a few times a year category contains the percentage of 13 and people who never tried fast food are 5 percent at that time

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.5

The response only partially addresses the task and falls significantly short of the minimum length requirement of 150 words, stopping abruptly after covering only the 2003 data. While the student attempts to report some figures from the chart, such as the 4% for daily eaters and 17% for several times a week, the overall response lacks an overview and fails to make any comparisons across the years provided in the prompt. Furthermore, the selection of information is very restricted, omitting the 2006 and 2013 data entirely, which prevents a full summary of the visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

Information and ideas are not arranged cohesively, presenting the text as a single, long run-on sentence without proper punctuation or paragraph breaks. There is a complete lack of cohesive devices to guide the reader through the data, and sentences bleed into one another without logical transitions or capitalization at the start of new clauses. This makes the overall progression extremely difficult to follow, reflecting a very basic level of organizational control.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple phrases like "the people who eat" and "percentage of". There are noticeable issues with word form and punctuation spacing, such as "17.people" and "31% and once or twice a month eaters are up to 30% a few times a year". While the writer attempts to convey numerical data, the limited lexical range and minor mechanical errors mean the vocabulary remains at a foundational level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The writing demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures, consisting almost entirely of poorly punctuated clauses strung together. There is an absence of complex sentence forms, and fundamental punctuation rules—such as capital letters for countries and the beginning of sentences, as well as periods between independent thoughts—are entirely ignored. Frequent structural run-ons and missing punctuation create significant reading difficulty, though the underlying meaning of the isolated 2003 figures can still just be deciphered.

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