Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-09

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

THE FIVE BEST SMALL COMPANIES TO WORK FOR

Student answer (Band 5.0)

There is given table which shows the five small companies and also which one is better to work for after doing a staff survey by giving them rankings. And in this survey they determine some factors like staff number, male:female ratio, e.t.c.

Firstly. the company ranked first in survey has few number of employes than all the other companies and the company on fifth rank has highest number of employes. Then the second factor is ratio so the first company has 30% male while 70% female staff which is not the highest ratio as other companies also have the higher number og male staff like the company on third rank has 74% male staff.

However, only in company on forth rank has 8% of staff over 55s and the rest either don't have staff over 55s or other have it only 1%. Then the company on fifth rank has the highest percentage of staff turnover which is 33% and its higher than other companies and it may be the main factor of it to be on fifth rank. And the last factor is staff in high income bracket and according to this the company on third rank have 74% staff and the fifth rnaked only have 2% of staff comes in high income bracket.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify several relevant comparisons, including the first-ranked company’s smaller workforce, the fifth-ranked company’s larger workforce and highest turnover, and the third-ranked company’s high-income figure. However, the report does not give a clear overview of the main patterns across the table, and coverage is partial: for example, it omits the striking differences in gender balance and the contrast between the third company’s 74% high-income share and the fourth and fifth companies’ low figures. Some details are inaccurate or unclear: the first company has the lowest staff number, but “few number” does not state this precisely, and the claim that other companies have a higher number of male staff is not true of all of them. Avoid speculating that turnover caused the fifth company’s ranking; the table does not establish this.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic sequence, moving from workforce size to gender, age, turnover and income, and words such as “Firstly,” “However” and “Then” help signal some relationships. Nevertheless, the progression is not consistently clear: the opening repeats the task rather than presenting an overview, and the final paragraph combines age, turnover and income without a clear organising focus. Some linking is mechanical or imprecise, as in “Then the second factor is ratio,” while “the rest either don’t have staff over 55s or other have it only 1%” makes the comparison difficult to follow. Group the most important patterns into focused paragraphs and use explicit comparisons between companies to create a clearer progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for describing the table, including “ranked,” “ratio,” “staff turnover” and “high income bracket,” so the reader can generally identify the topic of each comparison. However, the range is limited and several word choices or forms are inaccurate or awkward, sometimes making meaning less clear. Examples include “few number,” “higher number of male staff” when referring to a percentage, and “the fifth rnaked.” “Employes,” “og” and “forth” also show spelling errors. Aim for precise data-reporting language and accurate collocations, such as “the smallest workforce,” “a higher proportion of male employees,” and “ranked fifth.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including clauses introduced by “which” and “while,” but control is inconsistent and errors occur frequently enough to affect clarity. Examples include “There is given table,” “the company on fifth rank has highest number,” and “the company on third rank have 74% staff,” where articles, sentence structure or subject–verb agreement are faulty. The sentence beginning “Then the second factor is ratio” is also awkwardly formed, and punctuation is inconsistent, as in “Firstly.” followed by a lowercase continuation. Practise accurate article use, agreement and sentence boundaries, then build longer comparisons from reliable structures such as “The company ranked third had…” and “whereas the fifth-ranked company…”.

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