Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-15

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 below demonstrates the number of participants in 5 different activites conducted at a social centre in Melbourne, Australia for the period 2000 to 2020.

At a cursory glance, it is evident that film club has the highest number of participants throughout the years. Followed by, table tennis who initially had a very low number but after a huge surge reached a substantial figure in 2020.

Meanwhile, there is a decrease in the figures of amateur dramatics. Subsequently, there were slight fluctuations in martial arts and musical performances.

To commence with, film club and martial arts participants remained quite steady throughout the years. While number of individuals in film club was just above 60, for martial arts it was in between 30 and 40. mW, table tennis initially had very few numbers, just slightly below 20. However, after 2010, there was huge increasing and by 2020, it was approximately 50%. On the contrary, there was a huge dip in the numbers for amateur dramatics and by the end of 2020, there were less than 10 participants.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify several important patterns: the film club remains the largest activity, table tennis rises markedly, and amateur dramatics declines to fewer than ten participants. These observations are broadly consistent with the graph. However, some reporting is imprecise or incomplete: table tennis reaches about 54 participants, not “approximately 50%” (the chart counts people, not percentages), and musical performances rise from zero to around 18 rather than fluctuating. The overview also says martial arts and musical performances fluctuate, which does not accurately capture the latter’s steady increase. Include a clearer comparison of the final figures and report the main trends for all five activities more precisely to make the summary more complete and developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a recognisable structure, moving from an introduction and overview to details, and phrases such as “Meanwhile” and “On the contrary” show an attempt to connect ideas. However, progression is not consistently clear: the overview groups martial arts with musical performances as fluctuating, then the detail paragraph omits musical performances altogether. “To commence with” does not establish a particularly useful sequence, and “Followed by” is an incomplete sentence rather than a clear continuation. The stray “mW” also interrupts the flow. Organise the details into clearer comparisons—for example, stable activities together and rising or falling activities together—and use linking expressions only where their relationship is accurate.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonable range of vocabulary for describing trends, including “steady,” “fluctuations,” “surge,” and “dip,” and the main meaning is generally understandable. Some choices are imprecise or unnatural for graph reporting, however. “Huge increasing” is not a natural collocation, “very few numbers” is awkward, and “approximately 50%” incorrectly presents a participant count as a percentage. “At a cursory glance” is also unnecessarily elaborate for a straightforward overview. There is a spelling error in “activites,” and the unexplained “mW” appears to be an editing slip. Aim for precise, conventional chart language such as “rose sharply,” “around 54 participants,” and “the number of participants.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including the contrast in “However, after 2010…” and the time clause “by the end of 2020.” Meaning is usually recoverable, but several sentence-level problems reduce accuracy. “Followed by, table tennis…” is a fragment, while “While number of individuals…” lacks an article and is left as a fragment before the next sentence. The construction “there was huge increasing” is grammatically faulty, and “table tennis who” uses an unsuitable relative pronoun for an activity. Check articles and sentence boundaries, and make sure subordinate clauses are attached to a complete main clause. These corrections would make the range you attempt clearer and more controlled.

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