Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-06

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 table illustrated the information of five different small companies who came top in the staff survey performed by a national newspaper to know which companies are suitable to do work.

overall, the staff numbers of the top 1 company is low compare to all the four companies , whereas the top 5th has higher number of employees.

coming to the top 1st company , which contains 56 numbers mostly females with 30:70 male to female ratio respectively. 77% of the staff members are under 35s with 5% staff turnover and 34% staff in high income bracket, whereas 2nd company has 79 staff numbers comparitively higher than the first company, with 47:53 male to female ratio and 59 of them belongs to 35s however only 1% belongs to 55s the staff turnover is 18% and 48% of the faculty are in high income bracket.

considering the 3rd 4rth and 5th companies, 5th comapny has higher staff number with 190 followed by 4th comapny with 76 and third comapny with 72. Mostly staff members are fe males in 4rth and 5th company which is 13:87 and 51:49 respoectively , while the third company has more male employers with 74:26 male to female ratio.In both 3rd and 5th company there are no staff members belongs to 55s ,in contrast 4rth comapnmy has 8% of staff memebres belong to 55s. staff turnover rate is highjer in 5th company with 33% followed by 4rth with 13% , 3rd has relatively low turn over.74% of the staff has high income bracket however only few staff has high income bracket in 4rth amnd 5th compnies

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response attempts to present and summarise the data from the table regarding the five best small companies. However, it only partially addresses the requirements of the prompt. While some main features are mentioned, such as staff numbers and male-female ratios, the overview is extremely basic and lacks a clear summary of the broader trends. Furthermore, many of the details are vague or imprecise, such as stating that '59 of them belongs to 35s' rather than percentages, and some comparisons are underdeveloped or confusingly grouped. To move to a higher band, the writer needs to select and report the key features more accurately and provide a well-developed, clear overview of the data as a whole.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organisation in the response, but overall progression is lacking, resulting in a somewhat disjointed text. The paragraphing is problematic; the second paragraph is an enormous run-on block of text that attempts to squeeze multiple companies and varied metrics together without adequate separation. Cohesive devices are used rather mechanically and repetitively (e.g., 'whereas', 'however', 'coming to'), and referencing is sometimes unclear, making it difficult to follow the relationships between the data points. To improve, the writer must structure the essay into distinct, logical paragraphs with clear topic sentences and smoother transitions between ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and barely adequate for the task. There are frequent lexical errors and inappropriate word choices, such as 'illustrated' instead of 'illustrates', 'faculty' used to mean staff, 'employers' instead of 'employees', and 'comapny' or 'turn over' showing poor word control. Spelling mistakes are also present throughout the response. The range of vocabulary is restricted mostly to basic reporting terms, and attempts at less common words result in inaccuracies that sometimes strain the reader. To achieve a higher score, the student should expand their range of functional vocabulary for describing statistical data and pay much closer attention to word choice, collocation, and spelling.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The grammatical structures used are relatively limited, relying heavily on simple clauses strung together with coordinating conjunctions. When the writer attempts more complex sentences, they are frequently marred by errors, such as missing articles, incorrect prepositions, subject-verb agreement issues ('the staff numbers of the top 1 company is'), and punctuation errors. Frequent grammatical inaccuracies occur throughout the text, which can cause some difficulty for the reader in parsing the exact meaning. To progress, the writer needs to demonstrate a greater variety of complex sentence forms while improving general grammatical accuracy across basic structures.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.