Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-17

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 5.5)

The below illustrates the change in household types in Great Britain throughout the years 1971 to 2007.

Overall, the number of persons living alone inreased and the people with no children increased by the following years. Dependeant childrens and non-dependent children both decreased by the next few decades. The number of lone parents increased by the following decades.

In the year 1971, there were only six percent one person households while the no children household were nineteen

and dependent children families were dominating by fifty-two percent. Non-dependent children were ten percent and lone parent households were only four percent.

In 1981, single person households increased to eight percent and no children families also increased to twenty percent. The number of dependent children decreased to fourty-seven percent and non-dependent children remained ten percent. The lone parent homes increased to six percent.

From 1991 to 2007, one person menage increased to twelve percent and the lone parents also increased to twelve percent. The nuber of no children houses increased to twenty-five percent and dependent children households decreased to thirty-six percent while non-dependent ones decreased to nine percents after being at its peak in 1991 at eleven percent.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student covers all parts of the task well, providing an overview of the main trends and reporting the key data features across the period. For instance, the student correctly notes that one-person households and lone parents increased, while households with dependent children dropped from 52% to 36%. However, there are some minor inaccuracies or vague expressions in reporting specific details, such as the overview phrasing 'the people with no children increased by the following years' when couple households with no children actually rose and then plateaued. Furthermore, the final paragraph groups years awkwardly ('From 1991 to 2007') while mixing specific terminal figures. Overall, the response addresses the prompt effectively, satisfying the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7.0 task response, though it stops short of fully developed academic synthesis.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The text is logically organized into four paragraphs: an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs dedicated to specific years (1971/1981 and 1991–2007). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different temporal blocks. Cohesive devices are generally functional, with time markers such as 'In the year 1971', 'In 1981', and 'From 1991 to 2007' helping to sequence the information clearly. However, referencing and progression can occasionally feel mechanical or list-like, moving statically from one percentage to the next rather than weaving a fully cohesive narrative. There is also a lack of advanced transition words to connect the broader trends smoothly to the supporting details. These limitations place the cohesion firmly at a Band 6.0 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for describing statistical data, utilizing terms such as 'percentage', 'decreased', 'increased', and 'peak'. However, there are several lexical errors and awkward word choices. For example, 'Dependeant childrens' contains a spelling error and a pluralization mistake, 'menage' is an unnatural choice of French loan word for this context, and 'fourty-seven' is misspelled. The student attempts some less common vocabulary items (e.g., 'dominating', 'peak'), but these are occasionally flawed in collocation or precision. Vocabulary errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'Non-dependent children were ten percent and lone parent households were only four percent' and 'while non-dependent ones decreased to nine percents after being at its peak in 1991 at eleven percent.' Grammatical control is mixed. There are noticeable errors including spelling and morphological mistakes ('inreased', 'Dependeant childrens', 'nine percents'), subject-verb agreement issues ('the no children household were nineteen'), and occasional clumsy phrasing. While simple sentences are generally accurate, complex structures contain errors that create minor bumps for the reader. This performance aligns with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

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