Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

The chart illustrates the information about how families in one country spent their weekly income in two different years. It include various categories.

According to the chart, the families in on country spent their weekly income for their daily basis in the year 1968 and in 2018. The different categories such has food, housing, fuel and power, transport and so on. In 1968, family spents approximately 35% of their weekly income on food. It is the category where the highest amount of money were spent among all other categories. Additionally, fuel and power is the major source where the least amount of weekly income were used same year. Similarly, In 2018, 22% of income were spent in leisure activites in each week.

In conclusion, families were spending their weekly income in for their daily basis like food, housing, fuel and power and so on. Food is the one of the most spending category and fuel was the lowest spending class among all other.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to provide a clear overview of the main trends or significant changes between 1968 and 2018. While it mentions a few categories, it lacks a comprehensive summary of the data. The information provided is fragmented and fails to make meaningful comparisons between the two years. For instance, it identifies food as the highest expenditure in 1968 but does not contrast this with the 2018 data effectively. The report is largely descriptive rather than analytical, and the lack of a clear summary of the main features significantly limits the score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is divided into paragraphs, but the logical progression is weak. The introduction is repetitive, and the conclusion does not synthesize the information provided; instead, it merely restates the topic in a slightly different way. Cohesive devices are used in a mechanical and sometimes inaccurate manner (e.g., 'Similarly, In 2018...'). The referencing is often unclear, and the flow between sentences is disjointed, making it difficult for the reader to follow the comparison of the data over the two time periods.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is limited and repetitive. The student relies on basic terms such as 'categories', 'amount', and 'spent'. There are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'the major source where the least amount of weekly income were used' and 'the most spending category'. These errors occasionally impede the clarity of the message. To improve, the student should focus on using more precise terminology related to data reporting, such as 'expenditure', 'proportion', 'allocated to', and 'fluctuated'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'family spents', 'income were spent') and preposition usage. The range of sentence structures is very limited, consisting mostly of simple sentences. There are also errors in punctuation and capitalization. While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of basic grammatical errors prevents the response from reaching a higher band. More attention to verb tenses and pluralization is required to improve accuracy.

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

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