Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-01
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 provided pie chart demonstrates how working youth spent their day on different activities in particular nation in the year 1958 and 2008.
Overall, the fraction of sleeping and working youth were the highest, whilst the youth who going out with friends or family, travelling to work and relaxing at home were the least.
To commence with, in 1958, the percentage of the day spent on working adult on relaxing at home and travelling to work were just under a one-tenth. The percentage of spending time by adult on sleeping and working were nearly similar which constituted to 32% and 33%, respectively. Moreover, the youth who spending day with friends and family were at 19%.
Furthermore, a similar trend can be seen in the year 2008, the scale of youth spent on working noticed the highest, marking 42%. Interestingly, spent day on playing sports, going out with friends and family and travelling to work showed a same scale, which accounted to 7% . The fraction of the day spent by adult on sleeping were just a quarter
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response covers the main features of the charts, but there are significant inaccuracies in the data reporting. For instance, you state that sleeping and working were 32% and 33% in 1958, and that sleeping in 2008 was 'a quarter' (25%), which may not align with the provided data. Furthermore, you refer to 'working youth' throughout the essay, whereas the prompt specifies 'working adults'. This misinterpretation of the subject matter affects the accuracy of the task response. While you attempt to make comparisons, the lack of precision in data extraction and the misidentification of the population group limit the effectiveness of the summary.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, including an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs. You use some cohesive devices such as 'To commence with', 'Furthermore', and 'Overall' to signal the structure. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes hindered by awkward phrasing and repetitive sentence structures. Referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly when you switch between describing the data and referring to the population as 'youth'. While the overall arrangement is coherent, the mechanical use of linking phrases and the lack of sophisticated transitions prevent a higher score.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision required for higher bands. You use repetitive phrasing such as 'spent their day' and 'scale of youth'. There are also issues with word choice, such as 'constituted to' (which is grammatically incorrect) and 'noticed the highest' (which is an unnatural collocation). You attempt to use some descriptive language, but the range is limited, and the consistent misuse of the term 'youth' instead of 'adults' indicates a lack of attention to the specific requirements of the prompt.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. Examples include 'the fraction of sleeping and working youth were the highest' (subject-verb agreement error), 'the youth who going out' (missing auxiliary verb), and 'showed a same scale' (incorrect article usage). While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of errors in basic sentence construction and verb forms prevents the response from reaching a higher band. More attention to subject-verb agreement and article usage is needed.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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