Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-08-05

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The table below shows the change in some household types in Great Britain from 1971 to 2007.

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

PEOPLE IN HOUSEHOLDS BY TYPE OF HOUSEHOLD AND FAMILY

Student answer (Band 4.0)

The table depicts the data of the underground railway system in six major cities with the year, distance of route, and passengers per year in millions.

Overall, London had the oldest railway system among all cities, while Los Angeles's railway system was the newest. Tokyo accounted for the highest number of passengers but it had average kilometer of route.

To begin with, the railway system started in London in 1863 which was the oldest and kilometers of route was around 394, it was the longest route and carried 775 million passengers. In addition, Paris introduced their railway system in 1900, it consisted of 199 kilometers and 1191 total passengers. Railway system opened in Tokyo in 1927, 155 kilometer train travel and around 1928 passengers experienced this railway system.

Moreover, Washington DC introduced its railway in 1976 and it had a moderate size route (126 kilometers) and 144 passengers approximately traveled. The railway system newly opened in Kyoto and Los Angeles in 1981 and 2001 respectively. Both cities have shorter routes and lower passenger numbers than the other four cities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for a summary of a table regarding 'household types in Great Britain from 1971 to 2007', but the student has written a report about an 'underground railway system in six major cities'. Because the student has failed to address the actual task provided, the response cannot be assessed for task achievement regarding the provided data. This is a fundamental failure to follow the instructions, resulting in a very low score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

Despite being off-topic, the response demonstrates a basic level of organization. It uses paragraphs to separate the introduction, overview, and body details. There is some attempt at logical sequencing, and cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'In addition', and 'Moreover' are used to link ideas. However, the lack of relevance to the prompt means the overall structure does not serve the purpose of the task. The referencing is clear, but the content itself is entirely unrelated to the provided visual information.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is adequate for describing statistical data, even though the subject matter is incorrect. The student uses terms like 'depicts', 'accounted for', 'introduced', and 'respectively' appropriately in a descriptive context. There is some repetition of 'railway system', and the range of vocabulary is somewhat limited, but it is sufficient to convey the intended meaning of the (incorrect) report. The errors in word choice are minimal, but the lack of topic-specific vocabulary for the actual prompt is a significant limitation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'average kilometer of route' (should be 'an average number of kilometers'), '155 kilometer train travel' (should be '155 kilometers of track'), and '144 passengers approximately traveled' (awkward phrasing). Punctuation is generally functional, though some comma splices occur. While the errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to suggest a lack of control over more complex grammatical forms.

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

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