Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-13

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.

Typical weekday for students in three different countries

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The bar graph above demonstrates the data of a typical weekday for pupils in three different countries across the world. It can be clearly illustrated from the bar graph that there are three different categories among which activities are categorized for a typical weekday. Studying is most dominant among all activities following sleeping and then relaxing whereas percentage of each category can vary across different countries. On scale of 1 to 14 sleeping peaked at 8.5 in UK it is highest value for sleeping across all three countries and in UK sleeping has highest value among other 2 categories as a comparison studying is at 8 and relaxing is at 7 being the lowest in UK. Now talking about remaining 2 countries in Japan studying exceeded all categories among all countries lying UpTo 13 and other activities such as sleeping and relaxing lies at points 7 and 4 respectively. Trends of all three activities is in-between both countries being 8,9 and 7 for sleeping, studying and relaxing respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main categories and report several key figures accurately, including Japan’s 13 hours of studying and the UK’s 8.5 hours of sleeping. You also compare activities within the UK and describe Germany’s figures. However, the overview is not fully clear: saying studying is “most dominant among all activities” overlooks that sleeping is highest in the UK, and the chart shows hours rather than percentages. The comparison that Germany’s trends are “in-between both countries” is also imprecise, since Germany’s studying figure is higher than the UK’s but lower than Japan’s, while its sleeping and relaxing figures match neither country exactly. A sharper overview and more precise comparisons would make the key features clearer and more fully developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response follows a broadly sensible order: it introduces the chart, gives an overall statement, then discusses the UK, Japan and Germany. This gives the reader some structure, and phrases such as “Now talking about remaining 2 countries” signal a shift. However, the whole response is presented as one paragraph, so the overview and country-specific details are not clearly separated. Some links are awkward or mechanical, particularly “as a comparison” and “Now talking about,” and the final sentence does not clearly connect Germany’s figures to the earlier comparisons. Use distinct paragraphs for the overview and details, and organise the comparisons around the activities or countries with clearer transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a reasonable range of chart-related vocabulary, including “categories,” “dominant,” “peaked,” “exceeded” and “respectively,” and the main information remains understandable. There are, however, several imprecise or unnatural choices: “demonstrates the data” and “lying UpTo 13” do not describe the figures naturally, while “trends” is not suitable for a chart comparing one typical weekday. “Percentage” is also inaccurate because the values represent hours. Some repetition of “activities” and “countries” limits flexibility. Choose precise terms such as “shows,” “hours,” “stood at” and “figure,” and use “category” or the activity names to avoid repetition.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a comparison introduced by “whereas” and a sentence using “such as.” The meaning is generally recoverable, but some grammatical errors make the relationships between figures less clear. For example, “sleeping peaked at 8.5 in UK it is highest value” joins clauses without appropriate punctuation, and “other activities … lies” has a subject–verb agreement error. The phrase “Trends of all three activities is” also has agreement problems, and several sentences would benefit from clearer clause boundaries. Practise accurate agreement, articles and punctuation, and divide long sentences when they contain several comparisons.

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