Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-11-05

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The pie charts below show how working adults in a particular country spent their time in 1958 and 2008.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

* Note: these aren’t the original diagrams given in the test, they were recreated for the purpose of demonstration.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The chart illustrates the percentages of the day spent by working adults on various activities such as sleeping, relaxing at home, working, playing sports, going out with friends/family and travelling to work, in the year 1958 and 2008.

Overall, working activities has the highest percentage in 1958 and as well as in 2008 and playing sports is least activities that spend by working adults in both the years.

In 1958, working has taken a huge percentage among the other at 33% and the second highest is sleeping this two has taken approximately half of the total percentage of the day spend by adults. Other activities has taken less activities compare to working and sleeping.

In 2008, working activites has the highest percentages than 1958 it has icrease to more 9% in 2008 but sleeping activity had decresed in 2008. While other activities remains slightly same compare to other but reakxing at home had increased by 5%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the two years and mention several relevant activities, and you correctly note that working takes the largest share in both years. However, the overview contains a major factual error: playing sports appears only in 2008, not in both years, and it is not the smallest category in 1958; travelling to work is 2%. The body also gives few precise comparisons. For example, you correctly state that working rises from 33% to 42% and relaxing at home increases by five percentage points, but you do not report the key changes in sleeping (32% to 25%), travel (2% to 7%), or socialising (19% to 6%). Select the main trends accurately and support the overview with these figures.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for 1958 and 2008. This makes the information broadly easy to follow. However, the progression within the body is limited: the 1958 paragraph gives only two figures, while the 2008 paragraph lists a few changes without systematically comparing the categories across years. Linking phrases such as “While” and “but” are attempted, though the relationships they introduce are not always clear, as in “other activities remains slightly same compare to other.” Organise the body around the most important increases and decreases, and use clear comparisons between years rather than general statements. This would make the progression more coherent and cohesion less mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “percentages,” “activities,” “highest,” “increased,” and “decreased,” so the reader can understand the general subject. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, spelling, and collocation errors reduce precision: “working activities,” “least activities,” “huge percentage,” and “other activities has taken less activities” are awkward or unclear. There are also misspellings such as “activites,” “icrease,” “decresed,” and “reakxing.” Use standard chart language and accurate forms, for example “the proportion spent working,” “the smallest share,” and “rose by nine percentage points.” A wider set of precise verbs and nouns would help you describe the data more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and longer sentences, and the overall meaning is usually recoverable. However, grammatical errors occur frequently and sometimes make comparisons difficult to interpret. Examples include subject–verb agreement in “working activities has,” the malformed construction “and as well as in 2008,” and “playing sports is least activities that spend by working adults.” In the body, “this two has taken” and “Other activities has taken” also show problems with agreement and sentence construction. The final paragraph contains a run-on sequence of clauses joined with “but” and “while.” Practise accurate subject–verb agreement, articles, and complete sentence patterns; then use shorter, controlled comparisons before attempting more complex sentences.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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