Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-17

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 5.0)

These tables give me numbers of population that lives in different areas of New York city during 1800, 1900, and 2000. According to this, the 24% of population in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island during 1800 but in Manhattan is 76%. However, in 2000 the Manhattan have only 19% but others have 81%. It means numbers of population is increasing day by day in other cities rather than Manhattan. New York City has five districts where in 2000 the population is 8,009,185 which is 7 multiple time than in 1800.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify relevant comparisons between Manhattan and the other four districts, including their respective shares in 1800 and 2000, and you report the city’s 2000 population accurately. However, the response only partially summarises the tables: it omits the 1900 figures, the overall population in 1800 and 1900, and the important change in Manhattan’s population, which rose to 1,850,093 in 1900 before falling by 2000. The claim that population is increasing “day by day” is not supported by data covering only three years. The response is also 60 words below the required minimum, leaving the main features substantially underdeveloped. Include a clear overview and select key figures across all three years.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a basic sequence: it introduces the tables, compares district shares in 1800 and 2000, and then mentions the city’s total population. This gives the reader some sense of the topic, but there is no clear overall progression or paragraphing, and the 1900 stage is skipped. Linking expressions such as “However” and “It means” are used, but the relationship between the comparison and the conclusion is not always clear; “It means” introduces an unsupported generalisation rather than a precise summary. Organise the response into an introduction, an overview, and a paragraph of selected comparisons. Use links to show genuine contrasts and changes over time, and refer clearly to the figures being compared.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant task vocabulary, including “population,” “districts,” and “percentage,” and the reader can understand the broad comparison. However, the range is limited, and several phrases are inaccurate or awkward, such as “numbers of population,” “the Manhattan have only 19%,” and “7 multiple time.” “Other cities” is also misleading because the figures refer to other districts within New York City, not separate cities. These choices make parts of the report less precise. Build a small set of accurate terms for describing population totals, proportions, increases, and decreases, and check that each noun refers to the correct place or quantity.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts to connect ideas using clauses and contrast, for example, “It means numbers of population is increasing … rather than Manhattan,” but the sentence structures are often faulty. Errors include missing or incorrect articles and prepositions (“in different areas of New York city during 1800”), subject–verb agreement (“the Manhattan have”), and incomplete sentence structure in “According to this, the 24% of population … but in Manhattan is 76%.” The final sentence also has an unclear comparison structure. Most sentences are simple or attempted complex forms with recurring errors, which sometimes make the intended meaning difficult to follow. Practise complete comparison sentences with accurate subjects and verbs, such as “Manhattan accounted for 76% of the population in 1800, compared with 24% in the other districts.”

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