Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-14

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The table gives information about the average hours spent on the Internet by European people of different age groups.

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The given tabular data illustrates the data about the mean hours spend on the internet by European individuals of various age groups.

Overall, it can be noticed that youngsters spend most of the time on internet. While over 20 years old people least prefer to use internet.

Initially, the 16-20 age group recorded highest spend time on internet. with male and female accounted average time 19 hours and 18 hours, respectively. similarly, age group 11-15, male spend 8 hours. Whereas female spend 6 hours. This ratio drops down in age group 21-25, at 7 hours for male and 5 hours for female.

Furthermore, after 25 years internet use continued declined. 26-30 years old individuals spend 4 hours on internet. In 31-50 age group, male spend 3 hours compared with female accounted 4 hours. Finally, over 50 years old people male spend 2 hours, and female spend 3 hours on internet.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response successfully covers all main features of the prompt by presenting an overview and reporting specific data points for various age groups and genders. The overview correctly identifies that younger age groups spend the most time on the internet. Key features are selected, such as highlighting the 16-20 age group as having the highest recorded usage (19 hours for males and 18 hours for females) and tracking the subsequent decline across older cohorts. However, the data presentation contains some minor inaccuracies or awkward phrasing (e.g., stating that 11-15 males spend 8 hours while females spend 6 hours without fully integrating the comparison into a cohesive flow). Because all parts of the task are addressed with relevant supporting data, the response satisfies the criteria for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is arranged with an introduction, an overview paragraph, and two body paragraphs, giving it a clear overall progression. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different age categories. However, cohesion within sentences and paragraphs is often faulty or mechanical. For instance, the use of transitional words like "Initially" and "similarly" is slightly unnatural for describing static demographic data rather than a chronological sequence. Referencing and linking between sentences can be repetitive, with frequent reliance on formulaic subject-verb structures. Paragraph progression generally makes sense, but the clunky cohesive devices place this response firmly in the Band 6.0 range.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms like "tabular data," "illustrates," "individuals," and "age groups." There are several attempts at less common vocabulary, but these are accompanied by noticeable word-choice and collocation errors, such as "mean hours spend on the internet" (should be 'spent'), "highest spend time" (should be 'highest time spent'), and "internet use continued declined" (should be 'continued to decline'). While these vocabulary errors are frequent, they do not severely impede communication because the intended meaning remains clear to the reader. This performance aligns with Band 5.5 to 6.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as "While over 20 years old people least prefer to use internet." However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors in verb forms, prepositions, and sentence structure. Examples include "mean hours spend" (past participle needed), "over 20 years old people" (awkward modifier), and punctuation issues like fragmenting sentences with full stops before prepositional phrases (e.g., "internet. with male..."). The majority of sentences contain noticeable errors, and complex structures are often faulty. Despite these frequent errors, communication is rarely completely blocked, supporting a Band 5.0 score.

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

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