Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-27

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 illustrates how people of a country has the habit of spending income weekly back in 1968 and after half century in 2018 comparatively.

Overall, in past the mortals used to spend significantly on food whereas after fifty years their major expense goes in leisure activities.

On one hand, in 1968 the families used 35 percentage of their weekly expenditure on food and 10 % on housing, clothing and footware. Only 7 percent of their money was used in fuel and power subsequently.

On the other hand, there had been a major difference between how people in 2018 make decisions for spending their income. The family uses most of their expenditure for leisure calculating at 22 % and 19 percentage on housing. Meanwhile, the mortals still spend the least amount of money on fuel and power but they have also reduced their expense on personal goods from 10% to less than 5% relatively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response covers the main features of the chart, identifying the shift from food-dominated spending in 1968 to leisure-dominated spending in 2018. However, the analysis is somewhat limited. While you mention key categories, the comparison could be more detailed, particularly regarding the categories that remained stable or showed less significant change. The overview is present but could be more precise in highlighting the contrast between the two years. The data is generally accurate, but ensure that all comparisons are clearly linked to the provided figures to fully satisfy the requirements for a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, and there is a clear progression of ideas from the introduction to the overview and body paragraphs. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'On one hand' and 'On the other hand' to structure your argument. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the flow between sentences could be improved by using a wider variety of linking words. Referencing is generally clear, though the structure of the overview could be more sophisticated to better connect the two time periods.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, but it lacks the precision and variety required for a higher band. You use some awkward phrasing, such as 'mortals' to refer to people, which is inappropriate for an academic report. Additionally, 'calculating at' is not the correct collocation for describing data. While you successfully use terms like 'expenditure' and 'proportion', the range is somewhat limited, and there are instances where word choice is slightly unnatural or imprecise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are several grammatical errors that affect the quality of the writing. For example, 'how people of a country has the habit' contains a subject-verb agreement error, and 'after half century' is missing an article. There are also issues with preposition usage and tense consistency. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they occur frequently enough to limit the score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and article usage will help improve your accuracy.

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

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