Band 7.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-16

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 7.5)

The pie charts illustrate the distribution of people's daily activities in 1958 and 2008, revealing significant changes in lifestyle over the five-decade period.

Overall, the data reveals that contemporary life has become increasingly work-focused, wirh people devoting signifgicantly more time to employment whilst reducing lisure time and social interaction. The emergence of sports as a tracked activity and increased home relaxation suggest a shift towards more sedentary, individualistic lifestyles, despite reduced sleeping hours indicating busier, more demanding schedules.

In 1958, sleeping dominated daily routines, accounting for 32% of time, closely followed by working at 33%. Socailising with friends and family constituted 19%, whilst relaxing at home and travelling to work represented only 8% and 2% respectively.

By 2008, work had become increasingly dominant, rising to 42% of daily time. However, sleeping declined sharlpy to 25%, suggesting that people were sacrificing sleep for work. The most dramatic shift occurred in socialising, which plummeted from 19% ot merely 7%. Conversely, relaxing at home nearly doubled from 8% to 13%, and traveling to work increased substantially from 2% to 7%. Notably, playing sports emerged as a new leisure activity, accounting for 7% in 2088.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.5

The student covers all requirements of the prompt effectively, accurately reporting the data for both 1958 and 2008. The main features and significant comparisons are clearly identified, such as the rise in working hours, the decline in sleeping time, and the drastic drop in socialising. The overview paragraph successfully captures the overarching trends of the period without merely listing raw data. Figures cited are completely accurate according to the provided reference data (e.g., working increasing from 33% to 42%, and socialising plummeting from 19% to 7%). The response is well-developed and fully satisfies the demands of Task 1.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The response is logically organized with a clear overall progression. It begins with an introductory paragraph setting out the context, followed by a well-synthesized overview paragraph, and then detailed body paragraphs contrasting the two years. Cohesive devices are used effectively and naturally to link ideas and contrasts (e.g., 'whilst', 'however', 'Conversely'). Paragraphing is used appropriately, with each paragraph serving a distinct and logical function in presenting the data.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The student demonstrates a wide and flexible range of vocabulary suited to academic writing. Phrases such as 'significant changes in lifestyle', 'increasingly work-focused', 'sedentary, individualistic lifestyles', and 'dramatic shift' show a sophisticated command of lexical items. There are, however, a few minor typographical and spelling errors ('wirh', 'signifgicantly', 'lisure', 'Socailising', 'sharlpy', 'ot', '2088'), which prevent this from achieving a higher band. Nonetheless, word choice and collocations are generally natural and precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.5

The student employs a wide variety of complex sentence structures with good overall control, including participial phrases and subordinate clauses (e.g., 'revealing significant changes in lifestyle over the five-decade period', 'suggesting that people were sacrificing sleep for work'). The majority of sentences are error-free, and the few minor errors present (such as the typo '2088' instead of 2008 and occasional punctuation slips) are non-systematic and do not impede communication at all.

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

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