Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-01

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 table shows a comparison between European male and female candidates of different age groups by their time spent surfing the internet.

Overall, it is immediately clear that most of young adults weather male or female between 16-20 spend most of their time on internet than any other age category. In contrast, people over age 51 were the lowest that spent their time on internet.

The age group of 26-30 comprised of equal number of 4 for both male and female. While age 31-50 were close with 4 females and 3 males. This number plummeted to 2 for males and 3 for females for people above age 51.

On the other hand, adults of age 21-25 comprised of 7 males and 5 females. This number surged dramatically for members of age 16-20 that contained 19 males and 18 females who spent most of their time on the internet far more than any other age group. However, this number fell significantly for young children of age 11-15 that gained 8 males and 6 females.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response covers the main features of the table, noting the peak age group of 16-20 and the lowest usage among those aged 51 and over. However, the treatment of the data is limited and sometimes imprecise, leading to a partial overview. For instance, the phrase 'weather male or female between 16-20' contains confusing phrasing, and the explanation of data trends lacks sufficient extension across all categories. While general comparisons are made between genders and age groups, some details are under-developed, keeping the task achievement at this level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is a basic logical arrangement in the response, beginning with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs grouping the data. However, the overall progression lacks seamless flow, and cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or awkward, such as starting consecutive sentences with 'This number...'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal cohesion between sentences is occasionally repetitive and fails to guide the reader smoothly through the comparative data, resulting in a somewhat disjointed structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, with standard terms like 'age group', 'male', and 'female'. There are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation, such as 'candidates' instead of 'individuals' or 'people', 'weather' instead of 'whether', and 'gained' instead of 'recorded' or 'stood at'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they reflect a limited and repetitive lexical range that prevents a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('While age 31-50 were close', 'members of age 16-20 that contained'), awkward prepositional usage ('time on internet'), and missing articles. Attempts at complex clauses often result in clumsy structures, and these frequent errors cause occasional difficulty for the reader, fitting the criteria for this level.

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

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