Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-26

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 chart depicts the various activities done by students on casual weekdays in various countries (UK, Japan, Germany).

Overall, Japan pupils spent most hours in category of studying while UK pupils hours was highest in category of sleeping. On the other hand, hours spent by pupils on relaxing remained lowest in each country.

In Japan the hours spent on studying was market at the highest value of 13 hours followed by Germnay students with 9 hours on studying and the least number of hours was spent by UK students among all countries on studying with value of 7 hours. Similarly, in category of sleeping hours spent was 8.5, 7 and 8 by UK, Japan and Germany respectively.

Concurrently, in term of relaxing UK and Germany students both spent almost 7 hours while only 4 hours was spent by student of Japan in category of relaxing.

In conclusion, Japan students were leading in study and marked last in relaxing and sleeping category.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student successfully addresses the main features of the chart, providing a clear overview and reporting the data for sleeping, studying, and relaxing across the UK, Japan, and Germany. The key comparisons are made, such as noting that Japanese students spent the most hours studying (13 hours) while UK students spent the most hours sleeping (8.5 hours). However, there is a minor data inaccuracy in the third paragraph: the student states that sleeping hours were 8.5, 7, and 8 for the UK, Japan, and Germany respectively, whereas the actual chart shows UK = 8.5, Japan = 7, and Germany = 8 (which the student actually got right, but phrased confusingly, though the German studying figure was mistranslated as 9 when the chart shows 8). Despite these minor misreadings, the task is adequately covered.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical structure with an introduction, body paragraphs addressing categories or countries, and a concluding sentence. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent transitions like 'In Japan', 'Similarly', and 'Concurrently'. Referencing is generally clear, though the progression between sentences within body paragraphs feels slightly disjointed at times due to awkward phrasing and grammar.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'depicts', 'casual weekdays', and 'leading in study'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, such as 'Japan pupils spent most hours in category of studying' instead of 'students', 'market at the highest value' instead of 'marked at', and 'pupils hours was highest'. Spelling is generally correct, but word choices lack precision and fluency.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though complex structures are often faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly missing articles ('in category of studying', 'in term of relaxing'), subject-verb agreement issues ('UK pupils hours was highest', 'Japan students were leading'), and awkward prepositions. Punctuation is generally acceptable. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur with enough frequency to prevent the score from reaching Band 6.

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

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