Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-23

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 given bar graph compares the average weekly spending their salary by families in a country across eight different categories in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, it is clear that significant changes in spending pattern over the fifty-year period, with reduce spent on food but increased allocation for housing, transport, and leisure activity. In addition, household goods remained equal spend

In 1968, the highest of the weekly income, at about 35%, was spend to food, making the greatest percentage in chart. Other categories accounted for less than 10% of the total spending, except for housing and clothing and footwear costs, which stood at exactly 10%.

In comparison, by 2018, while food costs still fell sharply to around 17%, leisure activity became a primary focus of spending, exceeding over 20%. Housing costs increased to over 15%, and transport expenses nearly doubled, rising from about 6% to over 12%. The remaining categories, including fuel and power, clothing and footwear, household goods, and personal goods saw minor fluctuations over the fifty-year period, remaining below 10% of total weekly income.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have successfully identified the main features and trends, such as the significant decline in food spending and the rise in leisure and housing costs. You provided a clear overview and supported your points with data from the chart. However, there are some inaccuracies in your reporting; for instance, you stated that household goods remained equal, but the chart shows a slight decrease. Additionally, the phrase 'exceeding over 20%' is redundant. To reach a higher band, ensure that all data points are interpreted with precision and avoid minor inaccuracies in the summary of trends.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The response is logically organized with a clear introduction, overview, and body paragraphs. You use cohesive devices such as 'In addition,' 'In comparison,' and 'while' to link ideas. However, the flow is occasionally hindered by minor grammatical errors that affect the cohesion of sentences, such as in the second paragraph where the sentence 'with reduce spent on food' is fragmented. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the overview from the detailed analysis, which helps the reader follow your argument. Further improvement in sentence-level cohesion would elevate this score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'allocation,' 'fluctuations,' and 'accounted for.' However, there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'reduce spent on food' instead of 'reduced spending' and 'highest of the weekly income' instead of 'largest proportion of weekly income.' These errors do not impede communication, but they limit the precision of your writing. To improve, focus on using more natural collocations and ensuring that word forms are used correctly in context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is good. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with verb forms and prepositions, such as 'was spend to food' (should be 'was spent on food') and 'exceeding over 20%.' Some sentences are missing necessary articles or have incorrect word order, such as 'the highest of the weekly income.' While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they occur frequently enough to impact the overall fluency and accuracy of the text.

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