Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-04

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 6.5)

The tables illustrate the total population of New york city and its breakdown between the Manhattan and four other districts between 1800 to 2000.

Overall, while the city's population grew massively, Manhattan total population has significantly dropped over the years. In stark contrast, the other districts experienced a potential upward trend in both the population size and proportion.

In 1800, the overall population of the New york city was around 79,216 wheras Manhattan holding the highest intial share at 76%. By 1990, Manhattan's population grew to over 1,850,093, but its proportion fell around 54%. By 2000, population of Manhattan has slightly dipped over 18 million, where the total share dropped to an all-time low of just 19%.

Conversely, the outer districts stood over 18000 population, while maintaining the proportion at 24%. However, they witnessed exponential growth over the two centuries, surging to 46% in 1900 and finally peaking at a massive 81% by 2000.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the overall population and the breakdown between Manhattan and the other districts across the specified years. A clear overview is provided, noting the massive overall growth alongside the contrasting trend for Manhattan. However, some ideas are under-developed or contain factual inaccuracies when reporting the data. For instance, the student writes 'By 1990, Manhattan's population grew to over 1,850,093', referencing the incorrect year 1990 instead of 1900, and later claims that the population of Manhattan 'has slightly dipped over 18 million' in 2000, which is factually incorrect and misreads the provided figure of 1,538,096. These inaccuracies in data reporting prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response exhibits a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Information is grouped coherently, with an introductory paragraph, an overall summary, and subsequent body paragraphs dedicated to specific data points. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'In stark contrast', and 'Conversely' are used appropriately to guide the reader through the comparisons. Paragraphing is managed sufficiently, and referencing is generally clear, contributing to a smooth reading experience that fully meets the requirements for this level and demonstrates strengths associated with higher bands.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and academic phrasing such as 'breakdown', 'exponential growth', and 'all-time low'. However, there are some noticeable word-choice and collocation errors that prevent a higher score, such as 'potential upward trend' instead of a positive or significant upward trend, and the spelling error 'wheras'. Additionally, the misstatement regarding '18 million' relates partly to lexical control over numerical expressions. Communication is not impeded, but precision and style remain inconsistent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordinate clauses and comparative structures. There are, however, some grammatical errors and awkward phrasing present. Examples include article omission and capitalization issues in 'New york city', subject-verb agreement issues such as 'Manhattan total population', and tense inconsistencies like 'holding the highest intial share' and 'population of Manhattan has slightly dipped'. Punctuation and grammatical control are generally adequate for communication, but errors persist and prevent the writing from achieving frequent error-free complex sentences.

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