Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-10-13

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 demostrates the activities adults did in a specific country to spend their time in 1958 and 2008.

Overall, majority of time of a day was spent at work in both 1958 and 2008.

The least time was spent for travelling to work in 1958, while the least time was spent for going out with friends or family in 2008 by adults.

In both years, adults used most of their time in a day by working, though working time increased to 42% in 2008, while it was 32% in 1958. There is a noticable drop in time that they used to went out with friends or family. In 1968, 19% of their time was being used to it, whilst it substantially decreased to 6% in 2008.

In 2008, they used to sleep a quarter of time of a day, and 13% of time spent to relax. In contrast, they used to sleep nearly one third of the time in 1958, and 8% to relax at home. To play sports, in both years, the spent time proportion is almost similar.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the broad pattern that work took the largest share in both years and correctly note that travel was the smallest category in 1958, while socialising was smallest in 2008. Several comparisons are also relevant, including the rise in working and relaxing time and the fall in sleeping and socialising. However, accuracy and coverage are uneven: working in 1958 was 33%, not 32%, and the year for the 19% socialising figure is mistakenly given as 1968 rather than 1958. The statement that sports time was almost similar in both years is unsupported: sports appears only in the 2008 data. A clearer overview and more complete, accurate reporting of the main changes would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear four-paragraph structure: an introduction, an overview, and two paragraphs of comparisons. This gives the reader a generally coherent route through the information, and linking expressions such as “Overall,” “while,” and “In contrast” help signal relationships. Some connections are less clear or repetitive, however. The final sentence about sports is difficult to interpret because it says the proportion was similar “in both years,” although the chart shows sports only in 2008. The comparison paragraph also moves from work to socialising without a particularly smooth transition. Grouping the figures more systematically—for example, increases together and decreases together—would make the progression more controlled.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for describing charts, including “increased,” “decreased,” “substantially,” and “in contrast.” These choices help communicate the main trends. However, several word choices and collocations are unnatural or imprecise, such as “demostrates the activities adults did … to spend their time,” “least time was spent for,” and “used most of their time … by working.” There is also a spelling error in “noticable,” and “used to went out” reflects an inaccurate word form. Aim for concise chart language such as “the charts compare,” “accounted for,” and “the proportion spent on.” More precise vocabulary would make the comparisons clearer and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mixture of simple statements and longer comparative sentences, including structures with “while” and “though,” and the overall meaning is usually understandable. Some grammatical errors remain, particularly in verb forms and sentence construction. For example, “the time that they used to went out” should use a gerund or a correctly formed past-tense clause, while “13% of time spent to relax” lacks a clear subject and uses an unsuitable verb pattern. “The spent time proportion” also has an awkward grammatical structure, and “majority of time of a day” is missing natural article and preposition choices. Practise building accurate sentences around “the proportion of time spent…” and check verb patterns after “spend” and “used to.”

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

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