Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-08-04

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)

There are two pie charts which are representing how adults spent their day with different activities shown as percentages for the years 1958 and 2008.

Overall, most of the adults spent their day working and sleeping while the rest was spent doing other daily tasks.

The adults spent almost half of their day working with 33% in 1958 and 42% in 2008, another significant portion throughout their day in both years was spent sleeping with an average of 32% in 1958 and 25% in 2008. Additionally, going out with friends/family took 19% in 1958 and relaxing at home took 13% in 2008.

In 1958, activities like relaxing at home and playing sports took 8% and 6% of their day. Similarly, in 2008, going out with friends/family, playing sports, and traveling to work all took approximately 7% out their day. Lastly, the least amount of time for both graphs was taken in travelling to work in 1958.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers the main features of the charts, identifying the primary activities (working and sleeping) and noting the changes over time. However, the analysis is somewhat superficial. For instance, the comparison of 'relaxing at home' and 'going out' is slightly confusing because the data points are not clearly contrasted between the two years. While the key trends are identified, the report lacks a more analytical approach to the data, such as grouping categories or highlighting the most significant shifts more clearly. The overview is present but could be more detailed to better reflect the overall trends.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs. Cohesive devices such as 'Additionally', 'Similarly', and 'Lastly' are used to link ideas. However, the progression of ideas within the body paragraphs is occasionally mechanical. For example, the transition between the discussion of 1958 and 2008 in the final paragraph feels slightly disjointed. Referencing is generally clear, but the flow between sentences could be improved to create a more cohesive narrative rather than a list of statistics.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey the necessary information. There is some attempt to use varied phrasing, such as 'significant portion' and 'least amount of time'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are instances of repetitive phrasing, such as 'spent their day' and 'took... of their day'. To reach a higher band, the student should incorporate more precise synonyms and collocations related to data description, such as 'accounted for', 'constituted', or 'witnessed a rise/decline'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some grammatical inaccuracies, such as 'There are two pie charts which are representing' (should be 'represent') and 'took approximately 7% out their day' (missing 'of'). While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. The control of punctuation is generally good, but the sentence structure could be more varied to demonstrate greater flexibility. The use of relative clauses and participial phrases is a positive step toward more complex writing.

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

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