Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-16

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 5.5)

The given table provides data on top 5 small British organizations that scored the highest in an employee based survey helping in figuring out which organizations are the finest to work for.

It is visible that the lesser the employees the better the organization works, from managing 56 employees while being on top to managing 190 employees and being on 5th, many dynamics changes. All the companies have minimum 13 males and 26 females working, in which majority of them are under 35 years old. The staff turnover ratio and high income brackets have mix results within the 5 companies that can vary company to company.

The companies from 1st position to 5th position have an increasing numbers of employees from 56 to 190 respectively except for the company on 3rd that have 72. All the companies have maintained the male female ratio while the company on 4th is dominated by female employees that are 87 out of 100. Most of the companies also discourage to hire old age people having no one exceeding the age 55 except for the 4th one who have 8 percent of people and the 2nd company that have 1 percent. The staff turnover is mix among these companies, the firm on 5th got the highest that is 33 percent than the firm on 1st that have just 5 percent. But in high income bracket staff it is different, the company on the third pays the most, around 74% and the organization at 5th is not good at paying that is why it has just 2 percent.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features of the table, such as staff numbers, male-to-female ratios, age distributions, turnover rates, and high-income bracket percentages. An overview is attempted in the second paragraph, suggesting a relationship between company size and survey ranking, though some generalizations are slightly inaccurate (e.g., claiming the 4th company has '87 out of 100' employees when the table shows a 13:87 ratio, or misinterpreting the 4th company's age distribution). Nevertheless, key comparisons are made and supported with data from the table, satisfying the core requirements of Task Achievement at this level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and is divided into logical paragraphs, starting with an introduction, followed by an overview paragraph, and a final body paragraph detailing specific features. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'The companies from 1st position to 5th position' and 'except for the company on 3rd'. However, referencing and transitions are sometimes mechanical or awkward, such as 'the firm on 5th got the highest that is 33 percent than the firm on 1st that have just 5 percent', and paragraphing could be structured more cleanly to separate the overview from detailed body points.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common phrases such as 'employee based survey', 'staff turnover ratio', and 'high income bracket'. However, there are notable word-choice errors and awkward phrasing, such as 'discourage to hire old age people' instead of 'discourage hiring older workers' or 'employ older staff', and 'mix results' instead of 'mixed results'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but lexical control is inconsistent, capping the score at this level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'All the companies have maintained the male female ratio while the company on 4th is dominated by female employees'. However, grammatical accuracy is hindered by frequent errors in subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'many dynamics changes' instead of 'dynamics change', 'the company on 3rd that have' instead of 'has', 'the 4th one who have' instead of 'has') and awkward prepositions or article usage. While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they persist throughout the text.

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