Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-10

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 4.5)

The table presents the information about the five small companies in britain to work for different position staff members,male/female ratio.

From an overall perspective, there are five position in survey from that 2 and 5 are being the to work for in britain.

To begin with, position 1 accounted 56 staff members and 30.70 were in male/female ratio in which 77% were in under 35s and there were 0% reported over 55s. Staff turnover reached to 5% and staff in high income bracket were 34%. The second position holds 79 members staff were 47.53 men/women ratio in which 59% are under 35s and only 1% over 55s. throughout the turnover reached to 18% and staff in high income bracket 48%. Third term came with 72 force team in which 74.26 boy/girl ratio include 82% are under 35s and 0% reported over 55s turnover high to 8% and staff income 74%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.5

You identify the table’s subject and report several relevant figures for the first three companies, including staff numbers, age groups, turnover and high-income percentages. However, the response is incomplete: it stops after the third-ranked company and gives no information about the fourth or fifth, so it does not adequately summarise the full table or establish a reliable overview. The overview claim that positions 2 and 5 are “the to work for” is unclear and unsupported; the table ranks companies but does not state that these are especially desirable. Some ratios are also written ambiguously as “30.70” and “47.53” rather than clearly as 30:70 and 47:53. The response is 142 words, below the 150-word minimum. Cover all five companies and highlight the main contrasts accurately.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

There is a basic sequence through the first, second and third positions, and phrases such as “To begin with” and “The second position” help signal this order. However, the response has no clear paragraphing or concluding overview, and the opening overview does not prepare the reader for the detailed comparisons. The long final paragraph strings together many figures, making the information difficult to scan; “in which” is also repeated as a connector without clearly showing the relationship between each statistic. The response ends abruptly after the third company, which weakens its progression. Separate the overview from the details, group companies or comparable features into paragraphs, and use clear links such as “whereas” or “by contrast” to show meaningful comparisons.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The response uses some task-related vocabulary, including “staff turnover,” “high income bracket,” “male/female ratio” and “under 35s,” so the reader can recognise the subject of the figures. However, the range is limited and several expressions are inaccurate or unnatural, sometimes making the intended meaning unclear. For example, “five position in survey” and “72 force team” do not describe the data naturally, while “boy/girl ratio” is too informal for an academic report. “The to work for” is also unclear. Use precise terms consistently, such as “ranked company,” “employees,” “male-to-female ratio” and “percentage of staff in the high-income bracket.” Check spelling and capitalisation, including “Britain.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

You attempt some longer sentences to report several statistics together, and basic past-tense forms such as “accounted” and “came” are present. However, sentence structures are often incomplete or inaccurately formed, which makes relationships between figures hard to follow. For example, “position 1 accounted 56 staff members” lacks a suitable grammatical pattern, and “The second position holds 79 members staff were…” combines clauses without a clear connection. There are also problems with articles, plurals and agreement, as in “five position” and “staff … were 34%.” Punctuation is limited, with long strings of information joined together. Practise accurate simple comparison sentences first, then combine them using controlled clauses and consistent past-tense reporting.

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