Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-26
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 charts illustrates the average proportions of percentage of the day spend by working adults in 158 and 2008 on five activities.
Overall, on working and sleeping accounts for the largest proportion of day, while travelling to work and going out with friend contribute the smallest percentage in all the day.
Regarding 1958, people send most of their day working and sleeping, making the largest proportion at 33% and 32%, followed by going out with friends and relaxing at home each account for just 19% and 8%. only 2% of people spend their day travelling to work.
Meanwhile, in 2008 a similar pattern can be seen for working and sleeping again making up the largest share at 42% and 25%. While going out with friends dropped to 6% and more people liked to relax at home. Playing sports contribute 7%. Travelling to work slightly rose from 2% to 7%.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student attempts to address the prompt by reporting figures for 1958 and 2008, and successfully identifies key trends such as working and sleeping taking up the largest proportions. However, there are significant factual inaccuracies in the data reported. For instance, the student states that going out with friends and relaxing at home each account for 'just 19% and 8%' in 1958, but misreads the values or links them incorrectly, and misses 'Playing sports' entirely for 1958 (though it was only in 2008). The overview is also slightly confused grammatically and logically ('on working and sleeping accounts for'). The response meets the minimum length requirement, but the data handling has noticeable flaws, placing it at a Band 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is organized into clear paragraphs, starting with an introduction, moving to an overview, and then detailing the two years separately. There is an overall progression, fulfilling basic structural requirements. However, cohesive devices are somewhat mechanical or misused, as seen in the abrupt transitions and phrasing like 'Regarding 1958' and 'Meanwhile, in 2008 a similar pattern can be seen for working and sleeping again making up the largest share'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical links between sentences can be clunky. Paragraphing is present and appropriate, but internal cohesion requires better control, resulting in a Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully using terms like 'proportions', 'largest proportion', 'followed by', and 'dropped'. However, there are numerous lexical and grammatical-lexical collocation errors, such as 'spend by' instead of 'spent by', 'on working and sleeping accounts for', and referencing '158' instead of '1958'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with mixed success, and word-formation errors ('contribute' instead of 'contributed') recur. While communication is not severely impeded, these frequent slips limit the lexical score to a Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as participial phrases ('making the largest proportion at 33%') and relative clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the response. There are frequent errors in verb forms and tense consistency, including 'The pie charts illustrates' (subject-verb agreement), 'day spend by' (participle error), and 'people send most of their day' (wrong verb). Punctuation is also lacking in places. Because errors are frequent and occasionally cause strain for the reader while attempting complex forms, the grammar score is a Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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