Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The bar chart shows the typical weekday for students in three different countries.

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The bar chart illustrates the student's weekday comaprison among the UK, Japan and Germany.

Overall, it is explicitly evident from the graph that students in Japan spent most of their time on studies whereas had least relaxation value.Furthermore, UK undergraduates almost equally distribute their days among the categories.

Delving into the data, close inspection reveals that students in Japan preferred their predominent time on studying with 13 days instead of leisure actvities for relaxation with 4 days.However, allocated their time efficiently for sleep with 7 days.

Regarding other countries, England's students equally spent their time on each activity, study, relexation and sleeping with 8, 7 and 8.5 days.Germany on the other hand, had most of their time distribution for studying with 9 days, adjust their time for sleeping to 8 days and provide less to resting activities with 7 days.

In summary, students in Japan utilize most of their time on studying as compared to other activities whereas UK students gave equal importance to all categories.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the bar chart and making relevant comparisons across the three countries. An overview is successfully provided, noting key trends such as Japanese students spending the most time studying and the UK having an even distribution. However, there are significant data misinterpretations throughout the response. For example, the student incorrectly states that Japanese students spent '13 days' on studying instead of hours, and similarly refers to '4 days' for leisure and '7 days' for sleep. The chart clearly measures hours per weekday, not days. This misunderstanding of the units of measurement pulls down the overall accuracy of the data reporting, placing this response at Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, including an introduction, overview, and body paragraphs detailing the specific data. Cohesive devices are employed to guide the reader, such as 'Overall', 'Delving into the data', 'Regarding other countries', and 'In summary'. Paragraphing is appropriate for a Task 1 report. However, referencing and progression are occasionally hampered by awkward phrasing and mechanical transitions. For instance, the transition into the German data is slightly abrupt ('Germany on the other hand...'). Overall arrangement is coherent, but referencing could be smoother and more precise, making Band 6.0 an appropriate score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student attempts a range of vocabulary appropriate for an academic report, using terms such as 'illustrates', 'predominant', 'efficiently', and 'distribution'. However, there are several lexical errors and inappropriate word choices that hinder precision. For instance, 'comaprison' contains a spelling error, 'predominent' is misspelled, and the misuse of 'days' instead of hours distorts the vocabulary context. Less common lexical items are attempted with mixed success, and collocation is sometimes awkward, such as 'least relaxation value'. These limitations place lexical resource at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like participial phrases ('Delving into the data') and comparative clauses ('as compared to other activities'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward syntactical constructions throughout the text. Examples include 'whereas had least relaxation value' (missing subject), 'preferred their predominent time on studying' (incorrect prepositional usage), and 'England's students equally spent their time on each activity, study, relexation and sleeping with 8, 7 and 8.5 days' (clunky enumeration and mismatched values). These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, resulting in a score of 5.5.

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

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