Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-09

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 6.0)

The bar chart illustrates the proportion of public of USA who ate in fast food restaurants between 2003 and 2013.

Overall, it can be seen that majority of people liked to eat in fast food restaurants about once a week or once or twice a month while there are only few people who ate in fast food cafes about everyday or not at all.

Looking at details, about 32% people in 2003, 34% in 2006 and 28% in 2013 loved to eat fast food in restourants.about once a week while 30% in 2003, 25% in 2006 and 33% in 2013 preferred to eat fast food in restaurants about once or twice a month. Approximately 17% people in 2003, 20% in 2006 and 17% in 2013 enjoyed fast food several times a week in restaurants followed by 13% in 2003, 15% in 2006 and 15 % in 2013 ate in fast food hotels a few times a year. By contrast, only 4% people in 2003, 2% in 2006 and 2013 enjoyed fast food almost everyday whereas about 5% people in 2003, and 3% in 2006 and 2013 never explored fast food restaurants.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main pattern accurately: weekly and monthly visits account for the largest shares, while daily visits and never eating out are least common. The comparisons for once a week and once or twice a month are particularly useful, and most figures are close to the chart. However, there are some inaccuracies: several times a week in 2013 is 16%, not 17%, and daily eating is 3% in both 2006 and 2013, not 2%. The overview could also report the key change more explicitly: once-a-week visits peak in 2006, while monthly visits become the most common category in 2013. This covers the task, though some features are more fully reported than others.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement, moving from an introduction to an overview and then to comparisons of the categories. Phrases such as “Overall,” “Looking at details,” and “By contrast” help signal the stages of the report. The main limitation is that nearly all detailed information is packed into one long paragraph, making the comparisons harder to follow. Some links are also mechanical, particularly the repeated “while” and “followed by” constructions, and the sequence shifts between categories without a consistent grouping. Use separate paragraphs for the overview and details, and group the most frequent categories before the less frequent ones to make progression clearer.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to describe the chart and its categories, including “proportion,” “approximately,” and “by contrast.” However, some choices are imprecise or too informal for an academic report. “Loved” and “enjoyed” describe feelings rather than the frequency shown, while “fast food hotels” is an inaccurate label for restaurants. There are also spelling and form errors, including “restourants” and “everyday” where the intended meaning is “every day.” Repeated use of “eat” and “fast food” limits variety. Aim for precise reporting verbs and category labels, and check spelling and collocations carefully; these changes would make the vocabulary more controlled and appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast introduced by “while” and a summary clause beginning “Overall.” The meaning is generally understandable, but some grammatical errors remain. For example, “majority of people” needs a determiner (“the majority”), and “only few people” should be “only a few people.” Several comparisons omit “of” after percentages, as in “32% people,” and the sentence beginning “Looking at details” has awkward punctuation and sentence boundaries. The long detail sentence also makes the grammatical relationships between figures and categories less clear. Practise accurate articles, percentage constructions, and punctuation, while keeping complex comparisons in manageable sentences.

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