Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-01
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 first table illustrates how the total population of New York City changed from 1800 to 2000, while the second and the third table describes population changes in Manhattan and other districts of New York over the same period.
Overall, the population of New York City increased significantly in all five districts between 1800 and 2000. The population of Manhattan and other districts rise largely, but percentage of total population dropped in Manhattan where as it increased in other districts.
The number of people in all the five districts of New York grow significantly from 79,216 people in the year1800 to 8,009,185 in 2000. Initially, the percentage population of Manhattan city was higher in 1800 which was more than three quaters of total population and decreased over the centuries to 19% in the year 2000.
The percentage of total population in other districts such as Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island increased over the centuries from just one quater of total population with 18,701 people in 1800 to 81% with 6,471,089 people living in these districts in the year 2000.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5
The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by providing an overview and reporting the main features from the data tables provided. It covers the total population growth of New York City from 1800 to 2000, while also drawing key comparisons between Manhattan and the other districts. The overall trend and specific figures, such as the initial 79,216 population expanding to over 8 million, are accurately reported. However, some aspects are slightly under-developed; for instance, the analysis could have integrated more specific transitional data points from 1900 rather than jumping straight between the start and end periods for certain comparisons. Nevertheless, it fully meets the requirements for a solid performance at this level, showing clear features of higher bands through a well-defined overall trend.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from the introduction to the overview and body paragraphs. Each paragraph focuses on a distinct aspect of the visual data, moving effectively from total population figures to specific district comparisons. However, cohesion is occasionally mechanical or faulty. For example, cohesive devices are somewhat repetitive, and referencing phrases like 'where as' (whereas) and 'such as' are occasionally clumsy. Paragraphing is utilised sufficiently to group ideas logically, but transitions between the sentences could flow more smoothly to achieve a higher band descriptor.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and descriptive verbs like 'illustrates', 'increased significantly', and 'dropped'. However, there are noticeable word choice and spelling errors that prevent the response from achieving a higher score. Examples include 'quaters' instead of quarters, 'rise' instead of rose, and 'grow' instead of grew. While these lexical slips do not impede communication, they reflect an occasional lack of precision in word form and spelling that keeps the lexical resource at the current band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at relative clauses and comparative structures. There are several grammatical and punctuation errors present, such as missing articles ('the percentage population of Manhattan city', 'more than three quaters of total population'), tense inconsistencies ('rise' instead of rose in the overview), and preposition misuses. Fortunately, these errors rarely impede communication and the meaning remains clear throughout. To move further up, the writer needs to produce a higher frequency of error-free complex sentences and maintain consistent control over verb tense consistency.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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