Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The chart below gives information about how families in one country spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

1968 and 2018: average weekly spending by families

Student answer (Band 5.0)

The bar chart illustrate how families in particular country spent weekly income on various household categories in the year 1968 and 2018.

Overall, the highest proportion are food by far surapsing among all categories. the lowest proportion are fuel and power .

To begin with, in the yeay 1968, food recorded highest figure at 35% of weekly income whereas in 2018 it drastically fell to 16%. Housing are signficantly decreased by 25% compare to food categoryin the year 1968 and varied slightly to19%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.5

You identify the chart’s subject and report two relevant comparisons: food falls from about 35% to 16–17%, while housing rises from about 10% to 19%. However, the overview is inaccurate: food is not the highest category in 2018, when leisure is highest at about 22%, and fuel and power is not the lowest in 1968, where it is the smallest but clothing and housing are higher; in 2018, fuel and power and personal goods are both around 4%. Most categories are omitted, so the main changes are not adequately summarised. The response also contains only 83 words, below the required 150, leaving the task substantially incomplete. Include an accurate overview and compare several other categories, such as transport and leisure.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a basic structure: an introduction, an overview, and a paragraph beginning “To begin with” that gives details. This makes the intended organisation partly clear. However, the progression is very limited because the body discusses only food and housing, with no further grouping or comparison of the remaining categories. The overview’s two claims are also not clearly connected to the figures that follow, and the final sentence ends without a concluding comparison. Develop a fuller body paragraph organised around the main rises and falls, and use linking expressions such as “by contrast” or “while” to show relationships between categories. Check sentence boundaries and spacing so the reader can follow the information smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “proportion,” “weekly income,” “recorded,” and “fell,” and these choices help communicate the chart’s subject. There is also an attempt to vary wording with “drastically” and “significantly.” However, the range is narrow, and several spelling or word-choice errors reduce precision: “surapsing” appears to mean “surpassing,” “yeay” should be “year,” and “varied slightly” does not accurately describe housing’s increase. “Highest proportion are food” is also an awkward expression. Use accurate terms such as “accounted for,” “rose,” and “declined,” and ensure that descriptions match the direction and size of each change.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and a longer comparison using “whereas,” which shows some effort to vary sentence structure. However, errors are frequent enough to make parts of the response awkward. For example, “The bar chart illustrate” has subject–verb disagreement, and “the highest proportion are food” has an incorrect verb form and sentence structure. In “Housing are signficantly decreased,” the verb construction is faulty; “housing fell” or “housing decreased” would be grammatical. The sentence beginning “Housing are…” also lacks clear punctuation and contains a run-together phrase. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement, past-tense reporting verbs, and complete sentence boundaries before adding more complex comparisons.

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