Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · 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 4.5)

As we can see in 1958 people's spend more of their time busy at office work and sleeping but in 2008 people's started to give priority to their work and other activities rather than sleep, as we can see the sleep ratio decrease and work ratio increases in 2008. Another big change we can see is that in past people used to spend more of their time going out with family and friends as compared to 2008 . In past the outings were more common and everyone wants to hangout with their friends more often, but now as we can see in 2008 people's prefere online chatting or calling rather than face to face meeting each other which is not good for our social health. We can also see that in past people used to go out rather than relaxing longer at home but as the ratio of 2008 now people's wants their alone time and wants to realx more at home rather than going out. As the time is passing people's are preferring staying at home and also work from home which can leave a harmfull effect on their mental health.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The response makes an attempt to summarise the data, noting key trends such as the increase in working hours and the decrease in sleeping hours between 1958 and 2008. However, the student fails to include specific data values from the charts, relying instead on vague generalisations. Furthermore, the writer introduces a significant amount of personal opinion and speculation not found in the charts, such as claims about online chatting, social health, and mental health. For an Academic Task 1 response, the focus should be strictly on objective reporting of the visual data rather than subjective commentary and outside assumptions. Consequently, the task is only partially addressed, leading to a lower score in this area.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The text is written as a single, dense block paragraph without any logical divisions or clear paragraph breaks. This makes it difficult to follow the progression of ideas. Cohesive devices are repetitive and basic, heavily relying on conversational phrases like 'as we can see', 'in past', and 'now'. Reference words are sometimes ambiguous, and the overall structure lacks the clear organizational framework expected in an academic report, such as a distinct introduction, overview, and body paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is largely basic and repetitive, with frequent reliance on everyday words and conversational phrasing like 'hangout', 'alone time', and 'realx'. There are noticeable spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'spend' instead of 'spent', 'prefere' instead of 'prefer', 'harmfull', and 'realx'. While the student attempts some topic-related vocabulary like 'activities' and 'ratio', the range is limited and inappropriate word choices prevent the response from achieving a higher lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The response displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, consisting mostly of lengthy, run-on sentences joined by conjunctions like 'and' or comma splices. There are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('people's spend', 'people's wants'), tense inconsistencies ('people used to spend... everyone wants'), and missing articles. Punctuation is also poorly managed, contributing to the overall lack of control over complex sentence forms.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.