Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-07

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)

The bar chart illustrates citizens of United States of America who ate fast food in hotel between 2003 and 2013.

Overall, a small amount of people ate food at restaurants everyday. The chart had seen a large amount of people ate fast food once a week than followed by people who ate once or twice a month.

in 2003, 4 percent people who ate fast food at restauarants. This figure goes up to about 31 percent. In 2003 5 percent people never ate food at restauarant.

in 2006 and 2013 same amount of people who ate food daily, and almost same amount of people who ate once a week or twice a month.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response identifies the chart’s general subject and notes that daily eating was uncommon, while weekly and monthly visits were more prevalent. However, it reports very few of the chart’s key comparisons and contains an unclear account of the 2003 figures: “4 percent” is given without specifying the category, and the rise to 31% is not clearly linked to eating once a week. The claim that 2006 and 2013 had “almost same amount” eating weekly or monthly is misleading: weekly figures differ (33% versus 28%), while monthly figures are 25% and 33%. The overview also misses the main shift from weekly visits being most common in 2003 and 2006 to monthly visits in 2013. The response is 37 words below the required minimum; develop a fuller overview and compare more categories.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a basic sequence: an introduction, an overview, and brief comments on individual years. This gives the reader some sense of the topic, but the progression is limited and the final paragraph groups 2006 and 2013 together without clearly explaining which categories are being compared. The sentence “This figure goes up to about 31 percent” has an unclear reference, so the connection between the 4% and 31% figures is difficult to follow. Capitalisation at the start of “in 2003” and the repeated opening “In 2003” also weaken the presentation. Use separate, logically grouped paragraphs for the overview and comparisons, and use clear references such as “the proportion eating once a week”.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

Vocabulary is sufficient to identify the chart topic and several frequency categories, including “once a week,” “once or twice a month,” and “everyday.” However, the range is basic and repetitive, with “people who ate fast food” and “amount of people” used repeatedly. Some choices are inaccurate or unnatural: the chart concerns fast-food restaurants, not eating “in hotel,” and “a small amount of people” is not an appropriate expression for people. There are also spelling errors in “restauarants” and “restauarant.” Use precise terms such as “proportion,” “percentage,” and “frequency,” and vary phrasing with expressions like “dined at fast-food outlets” or “visited restaurants.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response relies mainly on short, simple sentences, with little variety in sentence structure. Several grammatical errors occur, including “citizens of United States of America” (missing articles), “4 percent people” (missing “of”), and “The chart had seen a large amount of people ate” (faulty sentence construction). The phrase “This figure goes up” also uses a present-tense verb when describing past data, and “same amount of people who ate” lacks a complete grammatical structure. These errors sometimes make relationships between figures unclear. Practise accurate past-tense reporting and comparison patterns, for example, “The proportion eating once a week rose to 31%” and “The figures for daily visits were the same in 2006 and 2013.”

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