Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-11-06

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 given pie chart illustrates the working adults spent their time in a particular country in the year 1958 and 2008.

The majority of the portion of the people falls in the working class which is 33% in 1958 and 42% in 2008. In 1958, 19% people used to go out with freinds and their families, this number reduced to 6% in 2008.

Sleeping pattern in adults is almost same with slight decrease in 2008 as compare to 1958.

Percentage for travel to work and playing sports is less in both years.

Relaxing at home increased from 8% to 13%

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify several relevant comparisons, including the rise in working time from 33% to 42%, the fall in going out from 19% to 6%, and the increase in relaxing at home from 8% to 13%. However, the response only partially summarises the charts: it gives no exact figures for sleeping and does not report the 2008 figure for travelling or the appearance of sports in 2008. The statement that travel and sports are low in both years is unclear and inaccurate for sports, which is shown only in 2008. There is also no clear overview of the main shifts across the period. The response is 100 words, below the required 150, so the information is substantially underdeveloped. Include a concise overview and select the key figures to support it.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response presents information in a generally understandable order, moving from work and socialising to sleep, travel, and relaxing at home. Basic links such as “In 1958” and “this number reduced” help connect the comparisons. However, the writing is a short sequence of separate statements rather than a clearly developed report: there is no distinct overview, and the relationships between the main trends are not made explicit. The sentence about travel and sports also groups unlike information together, making the comparison difficult to follow. Organise the response into an introduction, an overview of the largest changes, and a paragraph comparing the figures in detail. Use clear references and linking phrases to show how each figure relates to the two years.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for describing the charts, including “increased,” “reduced,” “percentage,” and “slight decrease,” so the main comparisons are usually understandable. However, the range is limited and some expressions are imprecise or unnatural for a data report. “The majority of the portion of the people falls in the working class” does not accurately describe the share of time spent working; “working class” refers to a social group. “Sleeping pattern” is also less precise than describing the proportion of time spent sleeping. There is a spelling error in “freinds,” and “used to go out” is unnecessarily conversational. Build a more precise set of chart-reporting phrases, such as “accounted for,” “the proportion spent on,” and “rose from … to …”.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You communicate the basic comparisons using mostly simple sentence patterns, and the meaning is generally recoverable. There are attempts to form longer structures, but control is uneven. For example, “The given pie chart illustrates the working adults spent their time” is missing a grammatical link such as “how,” while “The majority of the portion … falls” has problems with sentence construction and agreement. In “as compare to 1958,” the comparison structure is not correctly formed, and the present tense “falls” is inconsistent with the past dates. Most sentences follow a similar simple pattern, so the range is limited. Practise accurate past-tense reporting and comparison clauses, and check each sentence for a complete, well-formed subject and verb.

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

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