Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-10-05

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 6.5)

The pie charts illustrate how working adults spent their time in a particular country in 1958 and 2008.

Overall, the pie charts demonstrate that in both selected years, a wide share of the time spent was working followed by sleeping. What is a noticeable trend is the decrease of social activity such as going out with friends or family where it has gone down from 1958.

In 1958, two of the largest shares of the activities are working at 33% and sleeping at 32%. Going out with friends or family is the third largest activity recorded at 19%. The remaining activites remain marginal, however travel for work is the smallest at 2%.

In 2008, some of activies have changed regarding their share. Working remains primary at 42% followed by sleeping which has decreased to 25%. A large shift has occurred where relaxing at home as the third largest has increased to 13% which also coincides with the fall of social activity to 6% becoming the smallest recorded share.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by presenting an overview and reporting the main features of both pie charts. The selection of data is largely accurate, identifying working and sleeping as the dominant activities in both years, and noting significant shifts such as the rise in working hours and the decline in socialising. However, some areas are slightly under-developed; for instance, the inclusion of playing sports in 2008 is omitted from the analysis. The overview captures the main trends well, but to reach the next band level, the response would need a more comprehensive selection of all key categories across the charts without omitting notable new data points.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response presents a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Information is grouped sensibly, with an introductory paragraph, an overall summary, and two distinct body paragraphs dedicated to 1958 and 2008 respectively. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to guide the reader through the data, such as 'Overall', 'In 1958', and 'In 2008'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate time periods. While the overall arrangement is coherent, referencing and cohesion can occasionally feel slightly mechanical, preventing the response from achieving a higher band. Developing smoother transitions between sentences would further enhance the flow of ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms related to data reporting such as 'illustrate', 'decrease', 'share', and 'primary'. There are some attempts to use less common vocabulary, though this is occasionally accompanied by minor inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'activites' (spelling error) and 'travel for work' instead of 'travelling to work'. The vocabulary used is sufficient to communicate the main features clearly, but occasional word-form and spelling slips prevent it from reaching the next level. Incorporating a wider variety of precise synonyms and collocation patterns would elevate the lexical range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and introductory phrases effectively. There is a good attempt at complex structures, such as in the sentence beginning with 'What is a noticeable trend is the decrease...'. Grammar and punctuation control is generally sound, with some error-free sentences present, though a few minor errors occur, such as subject-verb agreement issues in 'the remaining activites remain' and awkward phrasing in 'some of activies have changed regarding their share'. These errors rarely impede communication, placing the grammatical performance firmly in the mid-band range. A wider variety of fully error-free complex structures would be needed for a higher score.

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

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