Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-18

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 5.0)

The table shows the data on top five small companies in Britain in a survey of staff conductuced by a national newspaper to discover which companies are best suited to work for.

The top first company has the least numbers of staff while the fifth one has the most. It could be seen that high income not played a crucial part neither gender has a role. Moreover employees over 55 are almost neglible. All the top five companies are companies has one thing in common that is less staff turnover.

The first position has the least staff turnover number, only 5% which gradually increases with the increase in positioning. The company that has staff with highest income bracket is 74%, coming up on 3rd position. The second position company has 79 staff members which is the highest to be seen on the chart.

In conclusion changing staff members rate has played the crucial ppart for the ranking of the small companies.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response covers some key features of the table, such as identifying that the 1st position company has the fewest staff and the 5th has the most, while noting staff turnover trends. However, the student misinterprets several data points, claiming incorrectly that 'high income not played a crucial part' when the third company has 74% in the high income bracket, and missing key comparisons across categories. The overview is somewhat inaccurate and vague. According to the Band 5 descriptors, the response addresses the task only partially and the position is not always clear, with limited and under-developed ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The text is divided into four short paragraphs, attempting an introduction, body, and conclusion. However, the logical progression is flawed, and ideas jump abruptly between staff numbers, income, demographics, and turnover. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes repetitive or awkwardly used, such as 'Moreover employees over 55 are almost neglible' and 'In conclusion changing staff members rate has played the crucial ppart'. Paragraphing is present, but overall referencing and transitions between sentences lack clarity. This aligns best with the Band 5 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, such as 'company', 'staff', 'position', and 'number'. There are notable spelling errors and awkward collocations, including 'conductuced', 'neglible', and 'changing staff members rate'. The student attempts some less common terms like 'turnover' and 'high income bracket', but precision is lacking and word choices often feel unnatural. This sits firmly at Band 5, where the range is limited and noticeable errors occur.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response displays a very limited range of structures with frequent grammatical errors. Examples include missing auxiliary verbs and incorrect word order in 'high income not played a crucial part', agreement issues in 'companies has one thing in common', and spelling mistakes. Complex structures are attempted but are often faulty or awkward. Although meaning can generally be extracted, errors are frequent enough to cause some difficulty for the reader, matching the Band 5 descriptors.

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

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