Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-13

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 illustrates the detail about the five small group in Europe which company play the best role in work.

The under 35 and over 55 staff worker played best rather than others. They stood at 77% at the start. The second group who play best role was staff members. They were 56%.The third group of male and female were reached on 30;70.The fourth company was staff in higher income bracket. The staff turnover stood at 5%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The student has failed to meet the minimum length requirement, writing only 77 words compared to the required 150 words. This severely limits the ability to provide a fully developed response, resulting in a serious under-length penalty. Furthermore, the content provided does not accurately reflect the source material; instead of summarising the given table about the five best small companies to work for, the text drifts into unrelated statistical mentions such as age brackets, male and female ratios, and staff turnover percentages that do not correspond to the prompt. Because the main features are not reported and the word count threshold is heavily breached, the response falls below the descriptors for Band 4.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response is organized into very short, disjointed sentences and lacks a clear overall progression. Paragraphing is rudimentary, with single sentences acting as paragraphs. Cohesive devices are largely absent or misused, making it difficult to follow the logical relationship between ideas. For instance, transitional phrases between sentences are missing, and referencing is unclear, such as abruptly shifting from 'The under 35 and over 55 staff worker' to 'The second group'. Due to these structural and organizational limitations, the text meets the criteria for Band 4.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, frequently reusing terms like 'staff', 'group', and 'play'. There are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'five small group', 'company play the best role', and 'reached on 30;70'. These limitations cause strain for the reader and prevent precise communication of data. The range of vocabulary is restricted and inadequate for an academic task, aligning with the descriptors for Band 4.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The response displays a very limited range of sentence structures, relying entirely on simple and frequently faulty declarative sentences. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('the five small group... which company play') and incorrect prepositions ('reached on 30;70'). Punctuation errors are also present, such as missing spaces after periods. These frequent errors distort meaning and make the text difficult to process, which corresponds to a Band 4 level.

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

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