Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-05

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 6.5)

The charts compare how working adults in a certain country allocated their daily time to six activities between 1959 to 2008.

Overall, functioning occupied the largest proportion of the day in the both years and became even more dominant in 2008. By contrast , sleeping and socializing took up smaller shares of time in 2008 than in 1958, while relaxing at home, commuting to work and playing sports all slightly increased.

In 1958, adults spent a third of their working , followed closely by sleeping at 32 % . Going out with friends or family accounted for 19%, whereas relxing at home represented only 8%. Travelling to work took up a minimal 2%, and the remaining 6% was devoted to playing sports.

Exactly fifty years later, the proportion of time spent working had rise markedly to two fifths, an increase of 9 percentage points. Sleeping fell to 25%, and social activities declined sharply to just 6%. Relaxing at home almost doubled from 8% to 13% . Commuting time also increased considerably from 2% to 8% , while participation in sports edged up slightly from 6% to 7%.

In summary , adults in 2008 devoted more time to work and home based leisure activities, whereas they spent less time sleeping and socializing than adults did in 1858.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response effectively addresses the task by identifying the main trends and comparing the data between 1958 and 2008. You have successfully highlighted the shift toward working and home-based leisure, while noting the decline in sleep and social activities. The overview is clear and provides a good summary of the key changes. However, there are some factual inaccuracies regarding the data provided in the prompt; for instance, you mention '1858' in the conclusion, which is a clear error, and the initial date range is stated as 1959 instead of 1958. Despite these minor slips, the main features are well-selected and supported by the figures.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, overview, and two body paragraphs. The progression of ideas is easy to follow, and you have used a range of cohesive devices such as 'By contrast', 'whereas', and 'In summary' to link your points effectively. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the overview from the detailed data analysis. The referencing is generally clear, though the minor date errors mentioned previously slightly disrupt the precision of the narrative. Overall, the structure is coherent and supports the reader's understanding of the data.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate a sufficient range of vocabulary to convey the information clearly. Phrases like 'allocated their daily time', 'occupied the largest proportion', and 'rose markedly' show good control of academic language. There are a few minor spelling errors, such as 'relxing' and 'functioning' (which is an odd choice for 'working'), and the word choice 'functioning' is slightly unnatural in this context. However, these errors do not impede communication, and you successfully use a variety of verbs to describe trends, such as 'declined sharply' and 'edged up'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures with generally good control. You have successfully employed comparative structures and accurate tense usage for the most part. There are occasional grammatical slips, such as 'in the both years' (should be 'in both years') and 'had rise' (should be 'had risen'). Punctuation is generally accurate, although there are some inconsistent spaces before commas in the text. Despite these occasional errors, the majority of your sentences are error-free, and the meaning is always clear.

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

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