Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-11-05

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The charts below show the average percentages in typical meals of three types of nutrients, all of which may be unhealthy if eaten too much.

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

Average percentages of sodium, saturated fats and added sugars in typical meals consumed in the USA

Student answer (Band 4.5)

The charts below show the average percentages in typical meals of three types of nutrients, all of which may be unhealthy if eaten too much.

sodium contain in snack and breakfast 14 percent and in diner sodium is 43 percent and also in lunuch 29 percent .

saturated fat contain in snack 21 percent and in breakfast is 16 percent and in lunch is 26 percent and also in diner is 37 percent .

Sugar contain in snack 42 percent and in breakfast is 16 percent and in lunch is 19 percent and in dinner is 23 percent .

the main thing is that if we taken all these things in snack ,breakfast , lunch or dinner with specific ratio and all these things are best for health and we taken all these things above the ratio and these things are not good for a health and

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You report the figures for all three nutrients, and the values given are generally accurate: for example, dinner accounts for 43% of sodium and 37% of saturated fat, while snacks contribute 42% of added sugar. However, the response does not provide a clear, accurate overview of the main patterns. The claim that all these foods are “best for health” is unsupported and conflicts with the task’s warning that excess intake may be unhealthy; the final point is also unfinished. The response contains 122 words, below the required 150, and 25 copied prompt words are excluded from that count. To improve, meet the minimum and summarise the key contrast: dinner is highest for sodium and saturated fat, whereas snacks are highest for added sugar.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The information is presented in a broadly understandable order, with separate statements for sodium, saturated fat and sugar. Repeating the meal categories also helps readers locate the figures. However, the response has no clear paragraph structure or developed progression from an overview to supporting details. The final sentence begins “the main thing is that” but becomes an unclear, unfinished chain of ideas, so it does not effectively connect or summarise the data. Linking words such as “and also” are repeated rather than used to show meaningful comparisons. Organise the response into an introduction, a concise overview and detail paragraphs, and use contrast markers such as “whereas” to make the main differences clear.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The response uses basic vocabulary relevant to the chart, including “sodium,” “saturated fat,” “breakfast” and “percent,” so the figures can generally be identified. However, the range is limited and repetitive, and several word choices or forms make the description awkward: “sodium contain” and “taken all these things” do not express the intended meaning naturally. There are also spelling errors in “diner” and “lunuch,” and “sugar” is less precise than the chart’s label, “added sugar.” Use accurate chart terminology and a small range of comparison language, such as “accounted for,” “the highest proportion” and “compared with,” to describe the data more clearly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

Most of the response consists of simple statements, and the reader can often infer the intended comparisons from the figures. However, grammatical control is weak and the range of sentence structures is very limited. Errors occur repeatedly in basic patterns, as in “sodium contain in snack” and “if we taken all these things”; the latter also leaves the conditional idea incomplete. Articles and sentence boundaries are often missing or inconsistent, and the final sentence runs on without a complete, clear structure. Practise forming complete sentences with a subject and verb, for example, “Snacks account for 14% of sodium,” and use a correctly formed overview sentence to compare the meal categories.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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