Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-20

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 bar chart given illustrate the individuals who dined at fast food outlets over the year in the USA between 2003 and 2013 .

Overall, Weakly was the highest figures consumed fast food in restaurant over all the years,conversely, the lowest figure was recorded daily.

Over the figures, restaurants saw exponential decrease in 2003 peaking at 3% to 4%

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

You identify the chart’s topic and attempt an overview by noting that weekly dining was highest and daily dining lowest. However, the overview is not fully accurate: the highest category changes from once a week in 2003 and 2006 to once or twice a month in 2013. The statement about an “exponential decrease” is unsupported and unclear; daily figures remain around 3–4%, rather than showing a meaningful exponential trend. Most categories and years are not reported or compared, so the main features are only minimally covered. The response is also substantially below the required 150 words. To improve, give a clear overview and support it with accurate comparisons and selected figures for all three years.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a basic sequence: it introduces the chart, gives an overall statement, and then attempts to describe a trend. “Overall” and “conversely” show an effort to connect ideas. However, the final sentence does not clearly follow from the overview, and its meaning is difficult to interpret. There is no developed paragraphing or progression through the years and frequency categories, while the comma spacing and full stop spacing are inconsistent. Organise the report into a short introduction, an overview, and one or two detail paragraphs. Group related categories and use clear comparisons, such as contrasting weekly visits with monthly visits across the years.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “bar chart,” “fast food outlets,” and “figures,” and you attempt more formal wording with “recorded.” However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural for describing this data. “Weakly” appears to be a mistaken form of “weekly,” and “figures consumed fast food” does not express the intended meaning. “Exponential decrease” is also an unsuitable description of the small changes shown. These choices make parts of the report hard to understand. Use precise category labels from the chart and natural collocations such as “the proportion of people who ate out” or “the percentage who visited once a week.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts both a simple opening sentence and a more complex overview using “conversely,” but grammatical control is inconsistent. In “The bar chart given illustrate,” the subject and verb do not agree, and the sentence needs an article or a more natural construction. The clause “Weakly was the highest figures consumed” has an unclear structure, while “restaurants saw exponential decrease” lacks an article and does not form a clear grammatical description. Punctuation is also uneven, with spaces before full stops and missing spaces after commas. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement and build clear sentences around a subject, verb, and comparison; for example, “Once-a-week visits were the most common in 2003 and 2006.”

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