Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-10-06

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 chart depicts the statistics of the working adults' trend to spend their time in a particular country. A considerable change was noticed during 1958 to 2008.

While discussing about the percentage of the adults going for outing with friends/ family, it was observed to be 19% in 1958 which drastically reduced to 6% in 2008.

On the other hand, statistics for travelling to work was seen to be 2% in 1958 and was rised in 2008 as 7%. Sleeping pattern in 1958 was 32% which dramatically declined to 25% in 2008. The data of the working adults spending their leisure time while relaxing at home was investigated to be 8% in the year 1958. Whereas, 2008 showed quite a changed beahviour with 13% adults following a different pattern. While keeping an eye on working trend, almost 10% increase was observed as 42% in 2008 as compared to 33% in 1958. There was another trend followed by the working adults on a productive activity like sports in 2008. This was the same year when adults tend to play sports that contributes to 7% of the activities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the two pie charts and making relevant comparisons between 1958 and 2008. For instance, you correctly noted the significant drop in going out with friends or family from 19% to 6%, and the increase in working time from 33% to 42%. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, and the overview lacks a clear summary statement outlining the overall trends, such as the shift towards work-related activities. To reach a higher level, you should ensure that a clear overview is integrated at the beginning or end of your report, synthesizing the most striking overall changes rather than jumping straight into isolated details.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

Your writing has a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to organize data point by point. However, the progression is somewhat mechanical and choppy because nearly every sentence starts with a new data point or time reference without smooth transitions. Paragraphing is under-utilized, as almost the entire body of the report is crammed into a single block of text below the introduction. Referencing and cohesive devices are also a bit repetitive, relying heavily on formulas like 'in 1958' and 'in 2008'. To improve, you should group related categories together into logical paragraphs and use a wider variety of cohesive devices to guide the reader seamlessly through the comparisons.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common vocabulary such as 'drastically reduced', 'dramatically declined', and 'productive activity'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and phrasing, such as 'trend to spend their time' instead of 'how time was spent', 'going for outing' instead of 'socializing' or 'going out', and spelling errors like 'beahviour'. There is also some awkward phrasing, such as 'adults tend to play sports that contributes to 7%'. These minor errors do not impede communication, but to achieve a higher score, you need greater precision in word choice and completely error-free spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and comparative structures. There are several grammatical errors and awkward structures, such as 'was rised' instead of 'rose', and 'statistics for travelling to work was seen to be' where the verb agreement is faulty. Punctuation and prepositions also show occasional awkwardness, such as 'increase was observed as 42%'. These errors rarely impede communication, but they persist throughout the text. To move up, you need to maintain greater control over passive and active verb forms, ensure correct subject-verb agreement, and reduce the frequency of grammatical slips in complex sentences.

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

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