Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-14

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 chart demonstrates how a country's households spent their weekly earnings in two distinct years 1968 and 2018.

Overall, it is evident that a major portion of earnings is spent on food, housing and the leisure sector. While other sector mostly represent volatility. However, spending on the household goods sector was constant for the two years.

For the year 1968, it experienced a dramatic shift, with food being the highest expenditure among all commodities for both years; it spent 35% on food, while in 2018 food witnessed roughly 17%. In all other sectors in 1968, the weekly spending mostly remained under 10%. For housing , dress and footwear the country spent exactly 10% on each sector in 1968. Whereas the country's total spending on fuel and energy was the least, just over 5% in the following year.

Regarding 2018, a significant amount of income was spent on leisure, at more than one-fifth. Moreover, house sector spending was doubled compared to the year 1968 at around 19% in 2018.Remaining sectors in 2018 fluctuated over the period of time on fuel and personal items in the country spending was less than 5%, which was the lowest.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response covers the main features of the chart and makes relevant comparisons between the two years. You successfully identified the most significant trends, such as the decline in food expenditure and the rise in leisure and housing costs. However, the analysis is slightly hampered by some inaccuracies in data interpretation; for instance, stating that spending on household goods was 'constant' is not entirely supported by the visual data, and the description of 1968 as experiencing a 'dramatic shift' is vague. To reach a higher band, ensure that all comparisons are precise and directly supported by the figures provided in the chart.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is logically organized into an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'While', 'Regarding', and 'Moreover' to link ideas. However, the flow is occasionally disrupted by awkward phrasing, such as 'While other sector mostly represent volatility', which lacks a clear subject or verb. Additionally, the transition between the description of 1968 and 2018 could be smoother. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but the internal cohesion within the second body paragraph is slightly mechanical, making the progression of ideas feel a bit disjointed at times.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'expenditure', 'commodities', and 'fluctuated'. However, there are some instances of imprecise word choice and collocation errors, such as 'the house sector spending was doubled' (should be 'housing expenditure') and 'in the following year' (which is confusing given the context of 2018). Some phrasing is also slightly unnatural, such as 'the country spent exactly 10% on each sector'. Expanding your range of topic-specific vocabulary and focusing on more natural collocations would improve your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is good. However, there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. For example, 'While other sector mostly represent volatility' is grammatically incomplete. There are also issues with subject-verb agreement and punctuation, such as the unnecessary space before the comma in 'housing , dress'. Additionally, the sentence 'Remaining sectors in 2018 fluctuated over the period of time on fuel and personal items in the country spending was less than 5%' is a run-on sentence that lacks proper structure. Focusing on sentence boundary control and basic grammatical accuracy will help.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.