Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-17

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 6.0)

The tabular representations delineate the variations in the demography of New York over 2 centuries from 1800 to 2000, and the population changes several of its cities encountered during the same tenure. The calibrations are in numbers and percentage.

Overall, the whole metropolitan area observed a massive spike in its residents during half of the period. Additionally, it is notable that Manhattan alone was accountable for the same rise, other cities uniformly had in 1900.

To initiate with New York as a whole, during 1800 there were 79,216 people residing, which rose to around 45 times for 1900 with the population of 3,437,202. Later, the increase rate was alleviated to approximately 250% with more than 8 million people in 2000.

Its cities however, including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island collectively had a strength of around 80,000 individuals. Furthermore, in 1900, the number of heads rose to nealry 2.4 million. Interestingly, Mahnattan solely dominated the statistics with 54% of the total spike in that century. In the end, Manhattan independently and other districts together had 1,538,096 and 6,471,089 people forming the 100% population by bifurcating 19% for Manhattan and rest for others respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses the task by selecting and reporting the main features of the population tables, covering both the overall growth of New York City and the breakdown between Manhattan and the other districts from 1800 to 2000. An overview is attempted in the second paragraph, noting the massive spike in residents. However, some data points are incorrectly interpreted or poorly expressed, such as claiming the increase rate rose to 'around 45 times for 1900' (when the population actually multiplied by over 43) and confusing percentage shifts with absolute totals in the final paragraph. While the main trends are captured, greater precision in reporting the statistical data would elevate the response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs focusing on overall trends and district breakdowns. Progression is generally clear, though transitions like 'To initiate with' and 'Its cities however' sound unnatural and somewhat mechanical. Cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore', 'Interestingly', and 'respectively' are used to link ideas, but referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the ambiguous phrasing 'its cities however, including Manhattan... collectively had a strength of around 80,000 individuals'. Paragraphing is logical, but the awkward phrasing of cohesive elements impacts overall flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting less common items such as 'delineate', 'demography', 'tenure', and 'bifurcating'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as using 'cities' instead of 'districts' or 'boroughs', 'strength' instead of 'population' or 'total', and 'heads' instead of 'people' or 'inhabitants'. Spelling is generally accurate, but inappropriate lexical choices and awkward phrasing detract from precision and occasionally cause minor confusion.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and introductory prepositional phrases. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several awkward structures and errors, such as 'the increase rate was alleviated to approximately 250%', where 'alleviated' is the wrong verb choice, and 'rose to nealry 2.4 million' (spelling error 'nealry'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but frequent structural awkwardness and minor errors prevent the response from achieving a higher band score.

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