Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-19

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 chart provided shows how working adults in particular country spent their time in 1958 and 2008.

The pie chart is mainly divided into going out with family, travelling at work, sleeping, working and relaxing at home. In 1958, most of the time was spent on working follwed by sleep and going out with friends/ family and least time was spent on travelling to work.

Whereas in 2008, the major chunk of time spent is also on working followed by sleep. The other major chunk of time soent was on relaxing at home which is more than 1958. In 2008, people also spent their time on playing sport which was missing in 1958. Travelling time has been same for both years. The least chunk of time was spent on socialising in 2008, which was higher in 1958. This can be due to various factors.

The pie charts shows the sharp contrast between few arenas.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers the main features of the two pie charts, comparing the time spent by working adults in 1958 and 2008. The student successfully identifies working and sleeping as the dominant categories in both years, and notes significant shifts such as increased time spent relaxing at home and the introduction of playing sports in 2008. However, there are some inaccuracies in reporting the data: the student states that 'Travelling time has been same for both years', which contradicts the charts showing an increase from 2% to 7%. Additionally, including outside speculation ('This can be due to various factors') is inappropriate for an Academic Task 1 summary. Nevertheless, an overall comparison is attempted.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response has a basic organizational structure with an introduction and body paragraphs, but the paragraphing is fragmented, with very short single-sentence paragraphs at the end (e.g. 'The pie charts shows the sharp contrast between few arenas.'). Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Whereas in 2008' and 'followed by', providing some logical flow. However, referencing is occasionally vague, and progression within paragraphs lacks complete smoothness. Overall arrangement is coherent enough to follow, but paragraphing requires better control.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Vocabulary is generally adequate to describe the visual data, utilizing terms like 'major chunk', 'socialising', and 'contrasts'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors, such as 'follwed', 'soent', 'sport' instead of 'sports', and 'travelling at work' instead of 'travelling to work'. Less common lexical items are attempted but lack precision and accuracy, resulting in a limited range that just meets the basic requirements of the task.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as subordinate clauses ('Whereas in 2008, the major chunk of time spent is also on working followed by sleep'). However, grammar and punctuation errors are frequent, including missing prepositions, subject-verb agreement issues ('time spent is also', 'pie charts shows'), and awkward phrasing. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the response to a Band 5.0 level for this criterion.

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

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