Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-04

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 bar graph illustrates the information about how families spent their earnings weekly in 1998 and 2018 in different categories.

Overall, it is evident that most of the the family spend their annual earnings on the food. On the other hand, least amount of the earnings was distributed to the fuel and power.

In 1968, the dominance has been seen in the food, it has consumed almost 35% of the salary. By comparison, housing and clothing and footware stood at the 10% of the total income. Followed by household and personal goods ,transport, leisure. These all have equal amount of salary spending which was roughly 8%. The least was paid out to the fuel and power, which is approximately 6%.

In 2018, spending on food had fallen dramatically and reached at 18%. Although, leisure expenses has been increased and reached at 23%. Followed by, housing which has roughly 19% of the total spending. Fuel and power and personal goods have less than 5% of total expensis among others.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have successfully identified the main features of the chart and made relevant comparisons between the two years. However, there are some inaccuracies in your reporting. For instance, you state that 'most of the family spend their annual earnings on food' in the overview, but the data refers to weekly income. Additionally, you mention 1998 instead of 1968 in the introduction. While you cover the key trends, such as the decline in food spending and the rise in leisure, the data points are occasionally imprecise (e.g., stating 'less than 5%' for categories that are clearly visible on the chart). To improve, ensure you double-check the years and units provided in the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is logically organized into paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs focusing on the two years. You use some cohesive devices like 'On the other hand' and 'By comparison' to link ideas. However, the flow is sometimes hindered by awkward phrasing, such as 'Followed by, housing which has roughly 19%'. The use of referencing is occasionally unclear, and some transitions feel mechanical. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider range of cohesive devices more naturally to connect sentences and ideas within paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

You have an adequate range of vocabulary to describe the data, using terms like 'dominance', 'dramatically', and 'expensis'. However, there are several errors in word choice and spelling, such as 'footware' (footwear), 'expensis' (expenses), and 'the the' (repetition). Some collocations are also slightly unnatural, such as 'distributed to the fuel' or 'salary spending'. While these errors do not impede communication, they limit the precision of your report. Expanding your vocabulary to include more precise reporting verbs and nouns would improve your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include 'most of the the family spend' (subject-verb agreement and article error), 'the dominance has been seen' (unnecessary passive voice), and 'leisure expenses has been increased' (incorrect tense/voice). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. Focus on subject-verb agreement and consistent tense usage when describing past data.

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