Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The graph below gives information on the numbers of participants for different activities at one social centre in Melbourne, Australia for the period 2000 to 2020.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

 

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The line graph illustrates the data on number of participants in five different sports activities (Film Club, Martial Arts, Amateur dramatics, table tennis, Musical Performances) at one social centre in city of Melbourne, Australia between year 2000 to 2020.

Overall, participants number in Table tennis and Musical performances showed a considerable increase, while Amateure dramatics activity members declined over the period.

In 2000, the maxium number of contestants participated in Film club which was around 65, which fluctuated over the time reach a peak of around 76 members. On the other hand, noone participated in Musical performances until 2005, after that the number grow significantly and reached on 25 in 2020. Followed by Table tennis, there was approx 17 participants in starting year, which steadily increased and reach at same level with Amateur dramatics in 2010 with around 20 participants. After this, the number of contestants surge abruptly and at on it's peak with nearly 52 participants. The number of Martial arts members was arond 38 in 2010, which fluctuated over the time and remained same in 2020.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features of the line graph, making relevant comparisons across categories. An overview is present, highlighting the overall trends of Table tennis, Musical performances, and Amateur dramatics. However, there are some inaccuracies and exaggerations in reporting the data. For instance, the student states that the Film club reached a peak of 'around 76 members', whereas the graph shows it peaked at around 66. Similarly, the peak for Table tennis is stated as 'nearly 52 participants' (or higher later on), and details regarding Martial arts are slightly confused. Consequently, the task achievement is affected by these data misreadings, fitting the Band 6 descriptor well.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs. There is a clear overall arrangement of ideas, but the cohesion within and between sentences is sometimes faulty or mechanical. Words like 'After this', 'On the other hand', and 'Followed by' are used, but referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the dangling phrase 'Followed by Table tennis, there was approx 17 participants'. Paragraphing is present and generally appropriate for an Academic Task 1 response, though the progression could be smoother and more logically structured.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'fluctuated', 'significantly', and 'abruptly'. However, there are noticeable word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'maxium', 'noone', 'grow', 'reach' instead of 'reached', and 'arond'. Collocation and precision are also somewhat weak, as seen in phrases like 'participants number' instead of 'number of participants' and 'contestants participated'. While communication is not heavily impeded, these lexical inaccuracies prevent the score from reaching Band 7.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and time markers. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('the number grow'), tense inconsistencies ('reach at same level'), and punctuation/run-on sentence structures (e.g., comma splices in the third paragraph). Although these errors do not completely obscure the meaning, they occur regularly and limit the proportion of error-free sentences, aligning with the Band 6 descriptor.

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

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