Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-11-10

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 5.5)

The chart illustrates the information about how families in one country spend their weekly income.

Overall, the chart shows the highest trend of food in 1968 whereras in 2018 the leisure trend in increased.

The chart shows that in 1968 demand of food and nutrition are increasing while the housing , fuel and power showing downward trend. While, clothing and footware fluctuated. Then household goods , personal goods, transport and leisure are at plateau.

In 2018, food are drecreasing then housing are slightly surged. Fuel and power, clothing and footwear, personal good are at same spending in our families. Whereas, transport and leisure time shows an upward trend.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the broad contrast that food was the largest spending category in 1968 and leisure was prominent in 2018, so the response is relevant to the chart. However, several descriptions do not match the data: food did not increase in 1968, and housing and fuel did not show a downward trend within that year; the chart compares two years. The claim that several categories were “at the same spending” in 2018 is also inaccurate, as their values differ. The response gives no figures and omits important comparisons, such as food falling from about 35% to 17% and leisure rising from about 9% to 22%. It is also 42 words below the required minimum, leaving the summary underdeveloped.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic overall structure: an introduction, a brief overview, and separate comments on 1968 and 2018. This gives the reader some sense of how the information is organised. However, progression is limited because the body paragraphs describe categories in a list rather than making clear comparisons between the two years. Linking words such as “While,” “Then,” and “Whereas” are used, but some connections are awkward or incomplete, and the repeated “The chart shows” pattern makes the writing feel mechanical. Group the largest rises and falls together, and use clear comparison links such as “by contrast” or “whereas” to guide the reader through the data.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some task-related vocabulary, including “weekly income,” “downward trend,” “fluctuated,” and “plateau,” showing an attempt to describe chart movement. However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural for a static comparison: “demand of food and nutrition are increasing” and “leisure trend in increased” do not clearly describe the percentages shown. “At plateau” is also unsuitable because the chart compares two points in time rather than a continuous trend. There are noticeable spelling and word-form errors, including “whereras,” “footware,” “drecreasing,” and “personal good.” Use precise terms such as “accounted for,” “rose,” “fell,” and “remained unchanged,” and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts a few complex sentence patterns, including “While, clothing and footware fluctuated” and “Whereas, transport and leisure time shows an upward trend,” but these clauses are not consistently formed as complete sentences. Frequent errors in agreement and verb forms make some statements difficult to interpret: “food and nutrition are increasing,” “food are drecreasing,” and “transport and leisure time shows.” Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention, as in “Then household goods…” and the comma after “While.” Most sentences follow a simple pattern, with limited accurate variety. Practise writing complete comparison sentences with a clear subject and correctly matched verb, for example, “Food spending fell, whereas leisure spending rose.”

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