Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.0 · 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 4.0)
The table show the 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.
Overall, the fifth company is highest number of staff. while the first company is lowest. On the other side fifth company is lowest staff in high income bracket and third company highest staff in high income bracket.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 3.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 4.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.0 |
| Overall | 4.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0
The response is severely under-length, containing only 72 words against the required 150-word minimum. Because of this major omission, the task cannot be fully addressed. Although the student attempts to highlight some details from the table, such as 'the fifth company is highest number of staff' and income bracket comparisons, the overview and comparisons are extremely limited, fragmentary, and under-developed. There is no comprehensive summary of the main features provided in the source graphic. Consequently, this falls well short of the requirements, leading to a low band score.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0
The text suffers from a lack of clear overall progression and organization due to its extreme brevity, consisting of only three very short sentences and no proper paragraph structure. Cohesive devices are minimal and basic, with awkward transitions such as 'On the other side fifth company'. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the relationship between ideas is disjointed. While there is a basic attempt to structure an introduction and body points, the complete absence of cohesive control and paragraphing prevents the text from achieving a coherent flow, resulting in a low score for this criterion.
Lexical Resource — Band 4.0
The vocabulary used is extremely basic and repetitive, relying on words directly copied or poorly adapted from the prompt, such as 'company', 'staff', 'survey', and 'income bracket'. There are noticeable lexical inaccuracies, such as missing verbs in phrases like 'the fifth company is highest number of staff' instead of 'has the highest number of staff'. The student does not demonstrate the range of vocabulary necessary to discuss data effectively. The limited and repetitive word choice causes strain for the reader and restricts the lexical score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0
The grammatical range is extremely limited, consisting entirely of basic sentence patterns that frequently contain major errors. There is a total absence of complex structures. Basic grammatical elements are missing or misused, as seen in 'The table show the information' (subject-verb agreement error) and 'the fifth company is highest number of staff' (missing preposition/verb). Punctuation is also problematic, with fragments and run-on phrasing. Because errors are frequent and consistently impede clear communication, the response matches the lower band descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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