Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-14

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 4.5)

The chart dislplays news about how families in one country spent their weekly earning in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, the most spending thing is food while the lowest is personal goods. Leisure and housing also a big ammount of spending by income. Others are moderate. And household goods are sae ratio in two years.

First off all, food is big proportion in this charts and the comparisons are noticable. In 1968 food spent income in 35 percent. Secondly, leisure take around 25% in 2018. But in 1968 it s like 8% there is good difference. Housing also shows good range comparison almost 18% between1968 to 2018. Fuel and powe, personal goods are moderate percentage. But household goods are same in two years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing spending categories in 1968 and 2018, but it suffers from severe limitations. First, the length requirement has not been met, as the student's response contains only 122 words, falling well short of the 150-word minimum. This directly impacts task achievement. Furthermore, the selection of main features is superficial, and the reporting of data is inaccurate or vague in places, such as stating 'food spent income in 35 percent' and 'leisure take around 25% in 2018. But in 1968 it s like 8%'. While some comparisons are attempted, they lack precision and adequate development. Consequently, the response aligns best with a Band 4.5 descriptor profile due to under-length and limited data reporting.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is divided into four paragraphs, including an introduction and an overview, which shows some basic structural awareness. However, the progression of ideas is disjointed and lacks a clear logical flow. Cohesive devices are used awkwardly or incorrectly, such as 'First off all' and 'Secondly', and the referencing within sentences is frequently unclear (e.g., 'the most spending thing is food'). Paragraphing is also erratic, with body paragraphs lacking unified focus. While the overall text is minimally understandable, the mechanical use of cohesive devices and faulty referencing restrict the score to a Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is basic, repetitive, and often unnatural. Examples include 'dislplays news' instead of 'illustrates data', 'the most spending thing' instead of 'the highest expenditure', and 'sae ratio' instead of 'the same proportion'. There are noticeable word-choice errors ('weekly earning' instead of 'weekly earnings', 'fuel and powe' with a missing letter) and a very limited range of lexical items appropriate for an academic task. Although the language is simple enough for the general meaning to be extracted, the restricted range and frequent inaccuracies place this criterion at a Band 4.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The grammatical range is extremely limited, relying mostly on basic sentence structures with frequent structural errors. Examples of problematic grammar include 'Leisure and housing also a big ammount of spending by income' (missing verb), 'food spent income in 35 percent' (incorrect passive/active voice and preposition usage), and 'it s like 8% there is good difference' (run-on sentence with colloquial phrasing). Errors in punctuation and subject-verb agreement occur throughout the text. Because complex structures are largely absent and simple structures contain frequent errors that hinder communication, this response warrants a Band 4.5.

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