Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-26

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 6.0)

The population pyramid chart compares the percentage of men and women across various age groups who hold full driving licenses in Great Britain for two different time periods.

Overall, a higher percentage of men hold full driving licenses across almost all age groups compared to women. Additionally, license ownership rates are generally lower among the youngest and oldest demographics, while peaking consistently among middle-aged individuals for both sexes.

Looking at the male demographic, the percentage of license holders remains consistently high across middle-aged cohorts. The proportion peaks noticeably within the 40–49 and 50–59 age brackets, where nearly 80% to 85% of men possess full licenses. Ownership rates drop slightly but remain robust among the 60–69 age group, whereas the oldest bracket (70 and over) and the youngest group (30–39) display slightly lower, though still significant, figures.

Among the female population, driving license ownership reflects a similar age distribution pattern but at lower overall percentages. License possession reaches its apex among middle-aged women, specifically in the 40–49 bracket. However, the gender gap widens significantly in the older demographics; for the 70 and over category, the percentage of female license holders drops drastically, falling far behind their male counterparts.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The student attempts to address the task by summarizing the provided charts, but there is a major issue with data coverage and accuracy. Firstly, the data in the charts covers two distinct time periods (1975/76 and 2006), which the student mentions in the opening sentence ('two different time periods'), but completely fails to discuss or compare anywhere else in the body paragraphs. Instead, the student misinterprets the chart type as a 'population pyramid' and confuses age brackets (e.g. referring to the 30-39 age group as the 'youngest group' in the third paragraph). Furthermore, the specific percentages cited (e.g. 'nearly 80% to 85%') are not accurately grounded in the data for the mentioned cohorts, and the temporal evolution between 1975 and 2006—which is the core comparative feature of the charts—is entirely omitted. This results in an incomplete and flawed overview of the main features.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response features a clear paragraph structure with an introduction, an overview, and separate body paragraphs focusing on male and female demographics. Cohesive devices are used adequately to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'Looking at the male demographic', and 'Among the female population'. However, the logical progression within the body paragraphs is weakened by factual inaccuracies and confused groupings (for instance, incorrectly categorizing age brackets). Paragraphing is used sufficiently, but referencing and logical flow suffer due to the omission of the temporal dimension.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range suitable for the task, successfully using terms such as 'demographics', 'ownership rates', 'proportion', and 'counterparts'. However, there are notable limitations and inaccuracies in word choice. For example, describing the visual data as a 'population pyramid chart' is incorrect. Additionally, calling the 30-39 age bracket the 'youngest group' in the third paragraph reveals a misuse of lexical items related to data description. Less common vocabulary is attempted, but errors in precision and interpretation prevent the score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, employing relative clauses and participial phrases adequately (e.g., 'across various age groups who hold full driving licenses'). There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasing choices, such as 'while peaking consistently among middle-aged individuals' (where consistency across years is muddled) and minor punctuation slips. Nevertheless, the grammatical errors do not impede overall communication, and the writer maintains a reasonable level of control over basic and intermediate sentence forms.

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

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