Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-10-04

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 compare Percentages of the day spent by working adults on various activities in a specific country in 1958 and 2008.

Overall, adults spend their most of time in working and sleeping in both years. There was a sharp decrease in going out with friends over the time but other activites such as travelling to work and relaxing at home showed a slight increase.

In 1958, people were not interested in playing sports while after a decade they spend 7% of their time in playing. In 1958, adults made up of 33% for working and 32% of sleeping, but after 10 years they started to work more of 42% and reduce their sleeping time by 25%. Similarly, citizens of 2008 decreased ther time for family and friends from 19% to 6%. The ratio of travelling to work was more than doubled in 2008 which was accounted for 7%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the main parts of the task by reporting key features and making some comparisons between the two years, which fits a mid-level response. The overview correctly identifies that working and sleeping accounted for the largest portions of time in both years. However, some of the details are inaccurately reported or confused based on the visual data. For instance, the student states that adults 'reduce their sleeping time by 25%' rather than to 25%, and misinterprets the timeline by referring to a fifty-year span as 'after a decade' or 'after 10 years'. Furthermore, playing sports is described as non-existent in 1958 when it was actually not featured on the 1958 chart at all, and the figure for 2008 is awkwardly framed. While the main trends are touched upon, the lack of precision in reporting data and some confusion regarding timeframes limit the development of the ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has an overall structure that includes an introduction, an overview, and body sentences, providing a basic framework for the data. However, progression is somewhat disjointed, and the logical flow between sentences is occasionally hindered by abrupt transitions and mechanical cohesive devices like 'Similarly'. Paragraphing is underutilised, as the body of the response is condensed into a single dense block rather than being logically divided by categories or years. Referencing is also a bit unclear at times, such as 'after a decade', which disrupts the temporal progression. While the relationships between ideas can be followed, the lack of sophisticated paragraphing and smooth cohesive links keeps the organisation at a basic level.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, successfully conveying general concepts such as 'sharp decrease', 'slight increase', and 'ratio'. However, there are notable lexical inaccuracies and awkward word choices that reflect limitations in range and collocation. Examples include 'spend their most of time in working', 'activites', 'ther time', and the phrasing 'made up of 33% for working'. While the vocabulary allows the writer to communicate the broad trends of the charts, the presence of frequent word-choice errors and spelling slips prevents the response from achieving a higher level of lexical precision and stylistic appropriateness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing relies on a limited range of sentence structures, with frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. There are issues with verb tenses and forms, such as 'adults spend their most of time in working', 'they spend 7% of their time in playing' (mixing past and present references awkwardly alongside past tense contexts), and 'which was accounted for 7%'. Preposition usage within grammatical patterns is also problematic, as seen in 'reduce their sleeping time by 25%' when the data shows the final proportion was 25%. Although some simple sentences are formed correctly, the frequent grammatical inaccuracies across complex structures and verb phrases restrict the overall accuracy.

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

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