Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-17
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 given pie chart compares the percentages of day spent by working adults on various activities from 1958 to 2008.
Overall, it is clearly seen, that working and sleeping are the largest day in both years. and spending on playing sports has least percentage in both year.
In 1958, the most of adults spend the highest percentage on working in both year about 42% ,and on sleeping about 32% in both year. Adults spent 19% of their day going out with friends or family, while 8% was devoted to relaxing at home. Travelling to work accounted for only 2%, and 6% of the day was spent playing sports. By 2008, the proportion of time spent working had risen substantially to 42%, an increase of 9 percentage points. In contrast, sleeping fell from 32% to 25%.The figure for playing sports changed only slightly, increasing from 6% to 7%.Meanwhile, relaxing at home increased from 8% to 13%, while travelling to work rose from 2% to 7%
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The student attempts to cover the main features of the two pie charts comparing time spent by working adults in 1958 and 2008. However, there are significant factual errors and contradictions in the data reporting. For instance, the student states that working accounted for 'about 42%' in 1958, whereas the chart shows it was 33%, and later correctly notes that it rose to 42% in 2008. Additionally, the overview contains confusing and grammatically flawed phrasing ('working and sleeping are the largest day'). While the main trends are partially identified, the inaccuracies in data transcription prevent the response from achieving a higher band score. To improve, the student must carefully verify figures against the visual data before writing.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response has an identifiable overall structure, beginning with an introduction, followed by a body paragraph attempting to contrast the data, though paragraphing is poorly handled as the text merges multiple ideas into a single dense block at the end. Cohesive devices are used ('In 1958', 'while', 'By 2008', 'In contrast', 'Meanwhile'), but their effect is undermined by punctuation and spacing errors (e.g., missing spaces after periods, comma splices like 'in 2008, the proportion...'). Progression is sometimes difficult to follow due to repetitive and contradictory statements about the years. Better paragraph separation and more accurate referencing would significantly improve the flow.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common collocations such as 'proportion of time spent', 'accounted for', and 'increased from 6% to 7%'. However, there are noticeable lexical inaccuracies and awkward phrasings, such as 'percentages of day spent' (missing article) and 'spending on playing sports has least percentage'. Word choice is sometimes repetitive, relying heavily on basic verbs like 'spent', 'increased', and 'decreased'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but vocabulary control lacks the precision and flexibility required for higher band scores.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing subordinate clauses such as 'while 8% was devoted to relaxing at home' and 'as the proportion of time spent working had risen'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors including missing articles ('percentages of day', 'least percentage'), incorrect prepositions, and punctuation/spacing lapses (e.g., missing spaces after full stops, leading to run-on sentences like 'to 25%.The figure for...'). While meaning is usually decipherable, the frequency of grammatical slips keeps this response at a band 5.5 level.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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