Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-25

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The charts below give information about a public library in a town called Little Chalfont.

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

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The pie chart compares the breakdown of age in library members while table provides information about total loans by category in perecentage in 2016 and bar chart illustrates trends in total count of loans between 2007 and 2016 of Little Chalfont Library.

Overall, Library was dominant with Adults of age 18-64 dwarfing all other age categories of members. Fictions of both children and adult shared equivalent percentages while children DVDs and Adult audio books accounted for the least proportions. However, the total number of loans rose gradually with the passage of time.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the main age-group pattern and correctly note that children’s and adult fiction each account for 38% of loans, while children’s DVDs are the smallest category. However, the response only partially covers the charts: it gives no supporting figures for membership or loan categories and does not describe the loan trend with its key fluctuations. In particular, loans did not rise steadily: they increased from about 15,700 in 2007 to 21,000 in 2011, fell to around 19,600 in 2013, then rose to 21,700 by 2016. The overview is relevant but underdeveloped, and the response is 58 words below the required minimum. Add a fuller account of each visual and select key figures to support comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear basic structure: an opening sentence identifies the three visuals, followed by an overview of the main patterns. The ideas are generally easy to follow, and “Overall” and “However” help signal the relationship between points. At this length, though, there is little progression beyond the overview, and the charts are not discussed in separate, developed sections. The contrast introduced by “However” is also not quite logical, since the gradual rise in loans is not a contrast to the preceding category comparisons. Organise the response into an introduction, a concise overview, and body paragraphs covering the membership and loan data, using clear links between related comparisons.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “breakdown,” “dwarfing,” “accounted for,” and “proportions.” These choices show an attempt to describe comparisons rather than simply list categories. Some wording is inaccurate or unnatural, however: “breakdown of age in library members” and “dominant with Adults” do not express the intended relationships clearly, while “total count of loans” is less natural than a standard chart-description phrase. There is also a spelling error in “perecentage.” Aim for precise collocations and accurate word forms, and use vocabulary that distinguishes membership shares from loan-category percentages. This will make the description clearer and more fluent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a complex opening sentence that combines information from all three visuals, and the overview uses a comparative structure such as “Fictions of both children and adult shared equivalent percentages.” Meaning is mostly recoverable, but some grammatical errors remain. The opening is missing articles before “table” and “bar chart,” and “while table provides” needs an article. In “Fictions of both children and adult shared,” the plural subject does not agree naturally with the singular verb, and the category labels need clearer grammatical framing. The sentence structures are also limited in this short response. Practise accurate articles, agreement, and parallel phrasing, then use a wider mix of simple and complex sentences to report figures and changes.

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