Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-11-04

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 5.5)

The graph below illustrates how often folks in USA went to the fast food chains between 2003 and 2013.

Overall, from 2003 to 2013 the ratio of people who ate fastfood once a week and once or twice a month was same and so was the frequency of those who ate everyday and who never had fastfood.

In 2003, 2006 and 2013 people who never had fastfood was around 5% while those who ate it everyday was less than 5%. Whereas those who went to these restaurants crossed 15% compared to those who went a few times a year their frequency was almost 15%.

On the other hand in 2003 the people who visited these chains once a week and twice or once a month was around 30%, in 2006 between 25% to 35% and in 2013 the ratio of once a week visitors was below 30% but in once or twice a week its crossed 30%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the chart’s subject and include several relevant categories, but the main features are not reported clearly or accurately enough. The overview says the weekly and monthly figures “was same” and that daily eating and never eating were also the same; however, the weekly and monthly proportions changed, and the two lowest-frequency categories were close but not identical. Some comparisons are also vague: “between 25% to 35%” does not explain the 2006 figures, and “once or twice a week” mislabels the monthly category. To strengthen the response, give a clear overview of the main shifts—for example, monthly visits became the most common frequency by 2013, while weekly visits declined—and support it with accurate figures from each year.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic paragraph structure, with an introduction, an overview and two paragraphs of detail, so the reader can recognise an attempt to organise the information. However, progression is limited: the overview makes unclear claims, and the detail paragraphs do not consistently group or compare the data in a logical way. Connectors such as “Whereas” and “On the other hand” are used awkwardly, and the latter does not introduce a clear contrast. Some references, including “its” and “these chains,” are also difficult to follow. Organise the body around clear comparisons across years, and use linking phrases only when the relationship between the figures is explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary, including “illustrates,” “frequency,” “ratio,” and “visited,” which helps communicate the chart topic. However, the range is limited and several choices are informal, repetitive or imprecise for an academic report. “Folks” is conversational, “fastfood” is not correctly written as two words, and “ratio” is less suitable than “proportion” or “percentage” here. The repeated use of “people who ate” and “went to” also makes the description less precise. Use standard chart language consistently, such as “the proportion of people who ate at fast-food restaurants,” and distinguish “once or twice a month” from “once a week.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a contrast introduced by “Whereas,” but control is uneven and errors sometimes make comparisons harder to understand. For example, “the ratio … was same” is missing an article, and “people who never had fastfood was” has subject–verb disagreement. The sentence beginning “Whereas those who went…” is a fragment, while “in once or twice a week its crossed 30%” has unclear structure and faulty agreement. Aim for complete, controlled sentences and check articles, singular/plural agreement and verb forms. A clearer pattern would be: “In 2013, 33% ate at these restaurants once or twice a month, compared with 28% who went once a week.”

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