Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-19

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)

This pie chart illustrates the average percentage in typical meals of three types of nutrients consumed in the USA, which may be unhealthy if eaten to much and can cause numerous health issues.

there are three pie charts which projects the average percentage of sodium, saturated fats and added sugars in the typical meals in USA, these pie chart displays that in the breakfast an average person in USA consumes 14% of sodium , 16% of saturated fats and another 16% of added sugar in his breakfast meal. however in lunch a average USA resident consumes 29% of sodium , 26% of saturated fat and 19% of added sugar on an average which shows that the consumption of these nutrition's have increased as compared to nutrition's consumed in the breakfast on average, therefore in the snack time an average USA citizen consumes 14% of sodium , 21% of saturated fats and 42% of added sugar which is very harm full for human health, eventually at the dinner time an average US citizen consumes 43% of sodium, 37% of saturated fat and 23% of added sugar.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student attempts to address the task by reporting the percentages for each nutrient across the four meal times. However, the response suffers from major organisational and structural issues. Crucially, the text is written as a single massive run-on paragraph, which severely hinders the clear reporting of main features and comparisons. While the individual data points for sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar are generally mentioned, they are listed in a tedious, repetitive sentence structure without a clear overview or effective grouping. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to step back and select overarching trends—such as noting that dinner is highest in sodium and saturated fat while snacks dominate in added sugar—rather than listing every single data point mechanically.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

Coherence and cohesion are severely compromised in this response. The entire body of the text consists of a single, unparagraphed block of writing, which violates basic structural expectations for an Academic Task 1 response. Progression is almost non-existent because the writer strings multiple independent clauses together using commas and conjunctions like 'however', 'therefore', and 'eventually' in a run-on fashion. This creates significant mechanical cohesion issues and a lack of clear logical flow. While basic cohesive devices are present, their overuse within a single long sentence structure prevents the text from achieving a coherent overall arrangement.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is generally adequate to convey the basic data points, including terms like 'average percentage', 'consumption', and 'resident'. However, the range is quite limited, and the writer relies heavily on repetitive phrasing (e.g., repeating 'an average USA citizen/resident consumes' multiple times). There are also noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'eaten to much' instead of 'eaten too much', 'projects' instead of 'depicts' or 'illustrates', and 'harm full' instead of 'harmful'. Less common vocabulary is virtually absent, and spelling errors like 'nutrition's' instead of 'nutrients' further restrict the score to a Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical range is extremely limited, characterized almost entirely by a single, excessively long run-on sentence that spans the vast majority of the text. The student fails to use proper punctuation, relying on commas where periods or semicolons are required, which results in severe comma splices. While simple subject-verb structures are generally recognizable, attempts at more complex or compound-complex sentences completely break down due to a lack of control over punctuation and clause boundaries. Frequent grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('in breakfast'), incorrect preposition use ('on breakfast meal'), and punctuation failures, significantly impede the readability and accuracy of the response.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.