Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-17

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 6.0)

The bar chart illustrates the information regarding how families in one country spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.

Overall, it is evident that the most income spent on the food and the least spent on the fuel and power in 1968 while the greater portion of weekly income allocated to the leisure and the least portion is allotted to the fuel and the personal goods.

Furthermore, during 1968, 37% of weekly income went to the food, almost 10% constituted the housing, the leisure and the clothing, around 8% represented the household goods, the personal goods and the transport, nearly 6% showed the fuel and power.

Moreover, during 2018, approximately 22% indicated the leisure activities, around 19% spent on the housing, almost 13.5% represented the food, 15% contituted the transport, 9% went to the household goods, approximately 4% recognized as the fuel and the personal goods.

In short, the bar graph clearly demonstrates that the spending on the food rose as compared to the housing, the transport and the leisure increased while all other catagories showed minor fluctuations.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response covers the main features of the chart and makes relevant comparisons between 1968 and 2018. You successfully identified the shift from food being the primary expenditure to leisure. However, the summary at the end contains a factual error: you state that spending on food 'rose', whereas the data clearly shows a significant decrease from 37% to 13.5%. Additionally, the overview is slightly cluttered with too much specific data, which should be reserved for the body paragraphs. To improve, ensure your overview focuses on the most significant trends rather than listing percentages, and double-check your data interpretation to ensure accuracy.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, and there is a clear attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'Furthermore', and 'Moreover'. However, the flow is somewhat mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally repetitive. For example, the frequent use of 'represented' and 'constituted' makes the progression feel list-like rather than analytical. To reach a higher band, try to vary your linking phrases and ensure that the transition between sentences highlights the relationship between the data points (e.g., contrasting or comparing) rather than just listing them sequentially.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You have a sufficient range of vocabulary to convey the information, using terms like 'expenditure', 'allocated', and 'fluctuations'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'most income spent on the food' (should be 'the largest proportion of income was spent on food') and 'recognized as the fuel' (which is unnatural). There are also minor spelling errors like 'catagories' and 'contituted'. To improve, focus on using more precise collocations for data reporting and proofread carefully for spelling accuracy.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the food', 'the leisure') and verb forms ('the most income spent' instead of 'the most income was spent'). Some sentences are slightly awkward, such as 'the leisure and the clothing, around 8% represented the household goods', which lacks a clear verb structure. Increasing the variety of complex structures and ensuring subject-verb agreement will help improve your score in this criterion.

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