Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-21

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 5.0)

Here, the bar chart illustrates how continuously individuals in USA ate in fast food restaurants for the year 2003 to 2013. The units measured in percentage people.

Overall, information of people consumes fast food at restaurant for a decade, for people ate at food on a regular basis to people who never ate at all.

The amount of people who prefer to eat at restaurant and people who never ate at restaurant was nearly at 5%. Individuals who liked to go out to eat or major times a week have percentage between 15% to 20%. Public who prefer to eat outside for few times a year is constant over a decade and nearly 15% of the population. Public who eat once week and twice a month nearly 30% but quite fluctuated over a time of period.

It seems like majority of people liked to eat fast food at restaurant once a week and sometimes a year.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the chart’s subject and mention several relevant categories, including weekly, monthly and yearly visits. However, the main features are only partly reported, and some comparisons are unclear or inaccurate. For example, the chart’s largest category changes from once a week in 2003 and 2006 to once or twice a month in 2013, but your conclusion says people mainly ate “once a week and sometimes a year.” The yearly figure is about 12.5% in 2003 and 15% in both later years, so it is not constant throughout the decade. The overview also does not clearly summarise the key shift. Select the highest and lowest categories, then describe their changes with accurate year-by-year comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a basic structure, moving from an introduction to an overview and then to details and a concluding observation. This gives the reader some organisation, and phrases such as “Overall” and “It seems like” signal transitions. However, progression is limited: the overview repeats the general topic rather than summarising the main trends, and the detail paragraph combines several categories without a clear order. References such as “the amount of people” and “quite fluctuated” do not make the comparisons easy to follow. Group the data into clear comparisons—for example, frequent visits, monthly visits, and the less common categories—and use linking phrases to show how each changed across the three years.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary, including “bar chart,” “percentage,” “regular basis,” and “fluctuated,” so the topic is generally recognisable. However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are unnatural, which sometimes makes the meaning difficult to interpret. Examples include “how continuously individuals…ate,” “major times a week,” and “Public who prefer to eat outside.” “The amount of people” is also an unsuitable expression for a countable group. Use precise chart language consistently, such as “the proportion of people,” “ate several times a week,” and “the figure remained stable.” Avoid replacing “people” with “public” when describing the chart’s categories.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a few longer sentence forms, including “The amount of people who prefer to eat at restaurant and people who never ate at restaurant was nearly at 5%.” However, sentence structures are limited, and frequent errors in agreement, articles, tense and sentence construction can make the comparisons hard to understand. For instance, “The units measured in percentage people” is a fragment, while “people consumes” has incorrect subject–verb agreement. The opening also uses “for the year 2003 to 2013” where a different time expression is needed. Practise complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, and keep past-tense reporting consistent: for example, “The proportion who ate weekly fell from 31% in 2003 to 28% in 2013.”

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