Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The first table below shows changes in the total population of New York City from 1800 to 2000. The second and third tables show changes in the population of the five districts of the city (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island) over the same period.

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The first table illustrates changes in the total population of New York City from 1800 to 2000. The second and third tables shows changes in the population of the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten island over the same period.

Overall, Manhattan city has highest population in early period then its consistently dropped out all over the period, while Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island climb stedely and made highest percentage of thotal population throught out the period.

Looking into more details, Manhattan was popular city in late 18th but after century it gets lower interest to live there. Later on many people have been migrated to different location of the city such as Brooklyn, Bronx Queens and Staten Island. In 1800 in New your City there were total 79216 people whereas 76% of population lived in Manhattan and only 24% population were lived in 4 other city.

However, in 1900 the things have changed and total population of 3,437,202 whereas Manhattan fall decline by 54% and other city increased 46%. then in 2000 total population of 8,009,185 whereas most of the population is lived in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island around 81% and only 19% people are stayed in Manhattan.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the task by reporting data from all tables, noting the overall population growth of New York City and contrasting the changing proportions of Manhattan versus the other four districts between 1800 and 2000. Key features and comparisons are highlighted, such as Manhattan's initial dominance (76% in 1800) dropping to 19% in 2000, while the other districts rose from 24% to 81%. However, the overview sentence in the second paragraph contains a slight inaccuracy ('Manhattan city has highest population in early period then its consistently dropped out'), as Manhattan's population actually grew in absolute terms from 1800 to 1900 before declining slightly by 2000; the drop was in percentage terms rather than absolute population. Overall, the content is mostly accurate and relevant, meeting the criteria for Band 6.5, rounded to 6.0 due to some confusion between percentage share and absolute numbers.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is arranged logically into four paragraphs: an introduction, an overview, and two detail paragraphs. Cohesive devices and transition markers are used to guide the reader, such as 'Overall', 'Looking into more details', 'Later on', and 'However'. However, some of the referencing and linking is mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'the things have changed and total population of 3,437,202 whereas Manhattan fall decline'. Paragraphing is present and appropriate for an Academic Task 1 response, providing a clear overall structure despite occasional cohesion slips. This places the response comfortably at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully using terms such as 'population', 'districts', 'percentage', 'migrated', and 'total'. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary, though these are sometimes accompanied by word-choice or collocation errors, such as 'dropped out', 'climb stedely', 'popular city', and 'gets lower interest'. Spelling errors also occur, such as 'stedely' instead of 'steadily' and 'New your' instead of 'New York'. While communication is not impeded, these frequent minor lexical inaccuracies keep the response at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as subordinate clauses ('while Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island climb stedely') and relative constructions. However, there are numerous grammatical errors throughout, including subject-verb agreement issues ('tables shows'), tense inconsistencies, missing prepositions, and awkward clause structures ('whereas Manhattan fall decline by 54% and other city increased 46%'). Punctuation is also weak in places, with run-on structures. Because the errors are frequent and occasionally cause strain for the reader, particularly in the complex sentences, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate.

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