Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-11-06

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

below shows the value of one country’s exports in various categories during 2015 and 2016. The table shows the percentage change in each category of exports in 2016 compared with 2015.

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The Graph shows the different products a country has exported during the time between 2015 and 2016. The table also shows the change in percentage of each product in the year 2016 compared to 2015.

The table is called export earnings, on the horizontal line of the table we see the names of the items that are being exported between 2015 to 2016 and on the vertical line we see the price of those particular items in dollars. Two different shades of colors are used to differentiate between the two years. Petroleum products are the ones being exported the most out of the 5 items on the table, 60 billion dollars worth of petroleum was exported in the 2015 which increased a bit in the year 2016 to a little over 60 billion dollars which is a increase of 3 percent.

The least exported item on the table is textiles but has the highest increase in percentage from 2015 to 2016, around 35 billion dollars worth of textiles were exported in the year 2015 which shot up to over 40 billion dollars in 2016 which is the highest increase in value out of the 5 items. Agricultural products have the least percentage of change in value as it was around 40 billion dollars in 2015 and it increased only by 0.81 perrcent. Engineered goods has the second highest change in percentage of it's value on the table as it increased by around 8.5 percent . Gems and jewellery is the only product on the table whose value dropped from just over 50 billion to a 50 billion which is a decrease of 5.18 percent.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify several relevant features, including petroleum as the largest export and textiles as having the greatest percentage increase, and you note that gems and jewellery declined. However, several figures are substantially misread: textiles rose from about $26 billion to $31 billion, not from $35 billion to over $40 billion; agricultural products were about $31 billion in both years, not $40 billion; and gems and jewellery fell from about $43 billion to $41 billion, not from over $50 billion to $50 billion. The overview is also incomplete: engineered goods rose to around $62 billion, while agricultural exports were nearly unchanged. These inaccuracies and the limited coverage of the main comparisons make the summary only partially successful. Report the chart values carefully and distinguish the table’s percentage changes from the bar-chart amounts.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a generally understandable sequence: an introduction is followed by discussion of the chart and then comparisons among categories. Linking phrases such as “The least exported item” and “Engineered goods has the second highest change” help signal shifts in focus. However, the first body paragraph spends space describing the chart’s axes and colours rather than organising the key findings, and the second paragraph combines several categories in a way that makes comparisons harder to follow. Some references, such as “the table” for what is a graph, are not always clear. A clearer overview followed by grouped comparisons—largest values, increases, and the decline—would create more purposeful progression and make the relationships between figures easier to track.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “exported,” “percentage,” “increase,” “decrease,” and “value,” and the reader can generally understand the comparisons you intend to make. There are also attempts at more descriptive language, such as “shot up,” though this is rather informal for an academic report. Some wording is imprecise or repetitive: “items” and “products” recur, while “the price of those particular items” does not accurately describe export earnings. Spelling errors such as “perrcent” and awkward phrases such as “a increase” also reduce control. Use precise chart language such as “export earnings,” “stood at,” and “rose by,” and choose neutral reporting verbs rather than conversational expressions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, including clauses linked with “which” and “as,” and most of the intended meaning remains understandable. However, some grammatical errors recur. For example, “which is a increase” has an article error, “Engineered goods has” has subject–verb disagreement, and “in the 2015” uses an unnecessary article. The long sentence beginning “The least exported item…” joins several comparisons and clauses without consistently clear punctuation, while “it's value” uses the wrong form of the possessive. These issues show that complex structures are being attempted but are not yet consistently controlled. Check agreement and articles, use the possessive “its,” and divide long comparisons into shorter, accurately punctuated sentences.

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