Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-16
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The charts below give information on the location and types of dance classes young people in a town in Australia are currently attending.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The pie chart and horizonal bar chart highlights the locations and types of dance classes attended by particular groups of individuals in Australia.
Overall, it is evident from the pie chart that the most dominant location for the dance classes is the private studios with the school halls trailing behind. While the accompanying chart illustrates that the ballet is the most popular dance type among children under 11, meanwhile for youngesters aged 11 to 16 modren dance is the most popular.
On the one hand, private studios accounted for 48% of the total locations used for dance practice making almost half of the volume show casing their enduring popularity. Meanwhile, the school halls make almost a quater of the total value. Furthermore, college-based studios, community halls and other locations accounted for 10% to 18% respectively.
On the other hand, under 11 children liked the ballet dance the most making almost 600 participants, with tap and modren dance comprising of approximately 500 and 300 students respectively. Conversely, for individuals between 11 to 16 modren dance classes is the most enjoyed one consisting of 500 participants, while tap dance have 450 students with ballet dance getting a fewer participants almost 300 showing less popularity in this age group.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The student successfully addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features of both the pie chart and the horizontal bar chart. An appropriate overview is provided, highlighting the most popular locations and the shifting preferences in dance types across the two age groups. Key data points are selected and compared, such as private studios accounting for 48% and the contrasting preferences for ballet among children under 11 versus modern dance among 11- to 16-year-olds. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in reporting the exact figures from the bar chart (for example, stating tap has 450 students when the transcription shows it around 420, and modern dance as 500 instead of 520). Nevertheless, these slight discrepancies do not detract from a clear and well-supported response that satisfies the core requirements of Task Achievement at a Band 6.5 to 7 level.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is logically organised into clear paragraphs, starting with an introduction, followed by an overview paragraph, and then body paragraphs dedicated to each chart. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'Overall', 'Meanwhile', and 'Conversely'. However, there are some awkward transitions and repetitive cohesive patterns, such as the overuse of 'On the one hand' and 'On the other hand' which are not ideally suited for comparing two separate charts rather than opposing arguments. Paragraphing is used appropriately to structure the response, ensuring a clear overall progression of ideas from location data to age group preferences.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'dominant', 'enduring popularity', 'accounting for', and 'conversely'. However, there are several spelling errors and lexical slips, including 'horizonal' instead of 'horizontal', 'youngesters', 'modren' instead of 'modern', and 'quater'. Word choice and collocations are generally understandable, but these repeated spelling and morphological errors prevent the response from achieving a higher band in lexical resource.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, incorporating relative clauses and introductory phrases. There are, however, several grammatical errors throughout the text. For example, 'The pie chart and horizonal bar chart highlights' contains a subject-verb agreement error, and phrases like 'the ballet dance' and 'tap dance have 450 students' exhibit minor article and agreement inaccuracies. Despite these errors, meaning is rarely impeded, and the sentence structures are sufficiently varied to support a Band 6 score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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