Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-08-11

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The graphs below show the percentage of people holding full driving licences in Great Britain by age and sex.

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

Full car driving licence holders: by sex and age

Full car driving licence holders: by sex and age

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The bar graph illustrates the proportion of individuals' owning full car driving licences in Great Britain saparate by age as well as gender.

To begin with, in 1975/76, age group between 30 and 39 represented the largest group for both men and women, accounting for around 83% as well as 50% respectively. Following this, 40-49 age group made up approximately 80% for men, and 39% for women. In contrast, the least percentage of people in age group between 70 and over was recorded to about 30% for men while 5% for women.

In 2006, the proportion of men in age 50-59 and wonen in 40-49 increased dramatically at around 90% as well as 80% severally. By contrast, the figure fell slightly in age group between 21 and 29 for men from 75% to 70%. Noticebly, 30% of women had full car driving licence belongs to 17-20 as well as 70 and over.

Overall, the highest percentage of men and women holded full car driving licence in age group from 30 to 39 in 1975/76. However, the trend was changed in 2006, the figures of both gender rose significantly in all age groups except 21-29, which declined from 75% to 70%.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have successfully identified the main features of the graphs and made relevant comparisons between the two time periods. You covered the key trends for both genders and age groups. However, there are some inaccuracies in data reporting; for instance, you mention 30% for women in the 17-20 age group in 2006, which is not clearly supported by the visual data provided. Additionally, some comparisons could be more precise to better highlight the shifts between 1975/76 and 2006. Overall, the response provides a clear overview, but more attention to data accuracy would improve the score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, with an introduction, body paragraphs for specific data, and an overview. You use some cohesive devices like 'To begin with', 'Following this', and 'In contrast' to guide the reader. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'severally' instead of 'respectively' or 'separately'. The progression of ideas is generally clear, but the transition between the data points in the second and third paragraphs could be smoother to better connect the trends over time.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'proportion', 'illustrates', and 'dramatically'. However, there are several instances of word choice errors and awkward phrasing, such as 'saparate by age' (should be 'separated by age'), 'least percentage' (should be 'lowest percentage'), and 'holded' (incorrect past tense of 'hold'). These errors do not impede communication, but they indicate a need for more precise control over word forms and collocations to reach a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('the trend was changed'), incorrect word forms ('wonen', 'Noticebly'), and awkward prepositional usage ('belongs to 17-20'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the frequency of these minor errors prevents the writing from being considered error-free. To improve, focus on proofreading for basic tense consistency and ensuring that complex sentence structures are grammatically sound.

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

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