Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-12
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The table below gives information about the five small companies in Britain that came top in a survey of staff conducted by a national newspaper to find out which companies are the best to work for.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
THE FIVE BEST SMALL COMPANIES TO WORK FOR
Student answer (Band 4.5)
The above chart illustrates a comparative survey which was conducted between five best small companies to work in Britain.
The comparison have been made by taking into consideration various factors like Staff number, male female ratio, staff, turnover etc
Company number five had the most number of staff, whereas company number one had the least.
Company number 1,2,4 and 5 have the maximum number of female staff members.Making it a best workplace for women.
Company number five has the highest percentage of staff turnover.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0
The student has failed to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, writing only 84 words. As a result, the response can only be considered a minimal attempt at the task. While the writer attempts to select and report some main features, such as mentioning that company number five had the most staff and the highest staff turnover, the overview and comparisons are severely underdeveloped and lack specific numerical data from the provided table. For instance, stating simply that company number one had the least staff without providing the actual figures falls short of the expectations for Academic Task 1. Because the response is significantly under-length and lacks comprehensive coverage of the table data, it corresponds to Band 4.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0
The text is organised into very brief, single-sentence paragraphs which fail to establish a coherent overall progression or clear logical structure. There is a lack of cohesive devices to link ideas together smoothly; for example, phrases like 'Company number 1,2,4 and 5' are disjointed and punctuation is mishandled, as seen in the sentence fragment 'Making it a best workplace for women.' Referencing is basic and repetitive, relying entirely on listing company numbers without creating a unified flow of information. While the general subject matter can be understood, the structural arrangement is inadequate for higher bands. This performance aligns closely with the Band 4.0 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student's vocabulary is basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple terms like 'company', 'number', 'staff', and 'survey'. There are notable lexical and collocation inaccuracies, such as 'five best small companies to work in Britain' instead of 'to work for', and awkward phrasing like 'male female ratio, staff, turnover etc'. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary such as 'comparative survey' and 'turnover', but these are used with limited precision and control. Spelling and word choice errors are present, though they do not completely impede overall communication. This demonstrates the characteristics of a Band 5.0 lexical range.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer uses a limited range of sentence structures, mostly consisting of simple sentences. There is a subject-verb agreement error in the second paragraph ('The comparison have been made'), and punctuation errors are evident, such as missing spaces after commas in '1,2,4' and a major sentence fragment ('Making it a best workplace for women.'). Although some simple structures are accurate, attempts at more complex formulations are either absent or faulty. The frequency of grammatical errors causes some difficulty for the reader and pulls the response down to a Band 4.5 level, rounded to 5.0 based on the mix of minimally accurate simple sentences.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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