Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-05

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The graph illustrates the percentage of full car driving licences holders by gender and age.

Overall, it is evident that men accounted for the highest number of driving licence holders, whereas women registered the lowest figure in 1975/76 and 2006..

Regarding the percentage of men, men aged 70 and over showed a 30% in 1975/76, which dramatically increased to nearly 80% in 2006, while aged 60-69 showed a 60% in 1975/76 and approximately 90% in 2006. The aged 50-59 stood at 80% and increased to nearly 90%, respectively. Those aged 40-49 represented almost 80%, and there was a slight increase to 80% in both years. Men aged 30-39 showed almost a same figure of about 80% in 1975/76 and 2006, whereas group 21-29 had a greater figure of nearly 79% and slightly dropped to 70% by 2006. The young age people had almost the same figure, around 40% during the periods.

Turning to the women category, women aged 70 and over had a lower proportion of only 10% in 1975/76, but it increased sharply to around 30% in 2006.

aged 60-69 had a figure of 15%, which soared to above 60% by 2006, while 50-59 had approximately 20% in 1975/76 and sharply climbed to almost 800%, respectively. Furthermore, 40-49 showed 40% and rose to 80 during the same years. The 30-39-year-old group represented 50% in 1975/76 and 80% in 2006. The 21-29-year-old women were about 40% in 1975/76 and 60% in 2006. Finally, young girls 17-20 showed a small figure, only 20%, and marginally increased to 30% by 2006

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers the main features of the data and makes relevant comparisons. However, there are significant inaccuracies in the data reporting. For example, you stated that women aged 50-59 climbed to '800%', which is a clear error in data interpretation. Additionally, the overview is somewhat simplistic. To reach a higher band, ensure that all figures are transcribed accurately from the graph and that the overview highlights the most significant trends, such as the narrowing gap between men and women across most age groups by 2006.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and separate body paragraphs for men and women. Cohesive devices such as 'regarding', 'turning to', and 'furthermore' are used to guide the reader. However, the progression within paragraphs is sometimes mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the use of 'respectively' when only one set of data is being compared. Improving the flow between sentences would enhance the overall coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task, with attempts to use descriptive verbs like 'soared', 'climbed', and 'dramatically'. However, there are some awkward phrasings, such as 'young age people' and 'women category'. The error of writing '800%' instead of '80%' is a significant lexical/data error. To improve, focus on using more precise collocations and ensure that the vocabulary used to describe trends is consistently accurate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('the' aged 60-69) and inconsistent subject-verb agreement. Some sentences are fragmented or lack necessary subjects, such as 'aged 60-69 had a figure of 15%'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to lower the score. Focusing on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and sentence completeness would be beneficial.

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

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