Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-14

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 pie charts compare the expenditure of time of working adults in a specific country during the years 1958 and 2008.

Overall, most of the time spent in both the years was on working. however, the least amount of time spend on an activity in 1958 was travelling to work and that in 2008 was going out with family/friends.

Firstly, the time people spend on travelling to work has significantly increased from 2% in 1958 to 7% in 2008. Moreover, the proportion of day spend on working has jumped from 33% in 1958 to 42% in 2008. Likewise, the amount of time people spend at home relaxing has also increased from 8% to 13% of the day.

On the other hand, there is a decline in sleeping time of working adults which fell from 32% of the day too just a quarter of the day. Similarly, workers spend 19% of their whole day going out with friends/family in 1958 which drastically fell to just 6% in the year 2008. At last, workers spent almost same time playing sports in both the years 1958 and 2008.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student successfully covers all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features of the pie charts, and makes relevant comparisons between 1958 and 2008. The response begins with a clear overview highlighting that working time predominated in both years. Key data points are accurately identified, such as the increase in working and travelling to work times alongside the decline in sleeping and socializing. However, the development of some points lacks complete clarity or depth, such as the imprecise mention that workers spent 'almost same time playing sports', which fails to provide specific figures or percentages from the charts. Despite minor limitations in data coverage and slight over-generalizations in formatting, the response effectively satisfies the core requirements of Academic Task 1, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The text demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from the introduction to the overview and body paragraphs. Paragraphing is used appropriately, separating the overall summary from specific increasing and decreasing trends. Cohesive devices are employed to link ideas, such as 'Firstly', 'Moreover', and 'On the other hand'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, there is a lowercase starting letter for 'however' following a full stop, and cohesive transitions occasionally feel repetitive or slightly forced. Furthermore, the concluding sentence lacks a proper link to the rest of the text. Overall, the organizational structure is adequate for a Band 6 score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully attempting less common items and synonyms such as 'expenditure of time', 'proportion', 'drastically fell', and 'significantly increased'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, prepositional use, and spelling/typographical errors throughout the response. Examples include 'spend on an activity' instead of 'spent', 'day spend' instead of 'day spent', 'too just' instead of 'to just', and 'spent almost same time' missing the article 'the'. These lexical errors and slight awkwardness in collocations prevent the response from reaching a higher band, placing it solidly at Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writing exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at varied structures such as relative clauses and comparative constructions ('the time people spend on travelling to work has significantly increased...'). There are, however, several grammatical errors and punctuation slips, including tense inconsistencies ('spend' instead of 'spent'), missing articles ('spent almost same time'), and punctuation errors such as starting a sentence with a lowercase 'however'. While these errors occasionally disrupt the flow, they rarely impede communication, allowing the response to meet the criteria for Band 6.

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

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