Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-21

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 illustrates the percentage of how working adults in a particular country spent their time on various activities in 1958 and 2008.

Overall, in 1958 people preferred to spend the majority of time at work and sleep 33 and 32 percent respectively. In contrast, the least common activity was relaxing at home and traveling to work. 8% and 2% percent respectively. While going out with friends and family remained moderate at 19% percent.

In comparison, in 2008 people spent their largest proportion of their time on working about 42% percent and sleeping was the second most common activity that figure around 25% percent of the day. The least common activity were playing sports, going out with friends and families and traveling to work, 6, 7 and 6 percent respectively. However relaxing at home was be considered 3rd common activity by working adults.

In conclusion, in both pie charts of 1958 and 2008 people prefer to spend their most of the time at work and sleeping. Where the least common activity is travelling to work, and playing sports. However going out with friends and families is third most common in 1958, However in 2008 trends changed, it will remain least common for people so they will prefer to relax at home rather than to go out with their friends and families.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student successfully addresses all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features of both pie charts while making relevant comparisons between 1958 and 2008. An overview is attempted in the introduction and conclusion, capturing broad trends such as the dominance of working and sleeping. Key data points are cited, such as working rising from 33% to 42%, and sleeping decreasing from 32% to 25%. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in data reporting and grouping; for instance, in the 1958 body paragraph, relaxing at home (8%) and travelling to work (2%) are incorrectly cited as the least common activities when the data shows relaxing at home was actually 8% and travelling was 2%. Despite these minor flaws, the key features are well covered, supporting a Band 6.5 performance, rounded to 6.0 based on minor data misinterpretations.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is arranged into four paragraphs, including a clear introduction, two body paragraphs comparing the charts, and a concluding summary. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'In contrast', 'While', 'In comparison', and 'However' are used to signal logical relationships between ideas. However, paragraphing and sentence-level cohesion suffer from mechanical and repetitive transitions. For example, sentences are frequently fragmented or awkwardly structured, such as '8% and 2% percent respectively' standing alone as a fragment, and the conclusion contains run-on structures with repetitive use of 'However'. Referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly in the conclusion where future tense ('it will remain') is incorrectly used to describe past data. Overall arrangement is coherent, but faulty cohesion and mechanical transitions keep this at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms related to time allocation, activities, and percentages ('illustrates', 'proportion', 'common activity', 'percentage'). However, there are frequent inappropriate word choices and awkward collocations, such as 'spend their largest proportion of their time on working about 42% percent' and 'relaxing at home was be considered 3rd common activity'. Repetition of basic vocabulary ('least common activity', 'spending time') is noticeable throughout the text. Word formation and spelling errors also occur, such as incorrect punctuation and redundant use of the word 'percent' right after a percentage sign (e.g., '42% percent'). The lexical range is sufficient to communicate meaning, but frequent inaccuracies place it at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There are several noticeable grammatical errors and awkward structures, such as sentence fragments ('8% and 2% percent respectively'), subject-verb agreement issues ('The least common activity were playing sports...'), and incorrect verb forms ('was be considered'). Furthermore, the misuse of tense in the conclusion ('it will remain least common for people so they will prefer to relax') demonstrates poor control over timeframe consistency. While the errors rarely completely impede communication, their frequency across complex structures prevents the response from achieving a higher band, justifying a score of 5.5.

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

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