Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-15

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 6.5)

The bar chart illustrates the percentage of households weekly expenditure on eight categories of activities in a particular country between 1968 and 2018.

Overall, it is evident that families spent higher percentage of weekly income on food and leisure in 1968 and 2018 respectively while fuel and power had the lowest proportion in both year.

Regarding weekly expenditure in 1968, largest percentage of income was spent on food recording a value at 35%, this was followed by housing and clothing & footware sharing a similar value at 10% and leisure at roughly 18%. Meanwhile, transport and personal goods recorded an identical percentage share less than 9% whereas household goods and fuel power accounted for roughly 7% and 4% respectively.

Turning to the percentage spent in 2018, the percentage allocated to food and clothing & footware declined relatively to a value below 16% and 5% respectively. Similarly, fuel and personal goods also decreased in percentage share to roughly 4% and 3% respectively. Conversely, lesiure rose substantially to roughly 23%, followed by housing to a value around 18% and transport to a value just below 14%. Consequently, households goods maintained an identical value in 1968 and 2018.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The student covers all parts of the task well, successfully reporting the main features of the chart for both years and making relevant comparisons. An overview is provided in the second paragraph, highlighting key trends such as the highest spending on food in 1968 and leisure in 2018. However, there are a few minor inaccuracies in data interpretation compared to the visual reference; for instance, leisure in 1968 was around 9% rather than the student's 'roughly 18%'. Despite this slip, the selection of data is generally appropriate and effectively supports a clear summary of the information.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The response is logically organised into four paragraphs, following a clear structure of introduction, overview, and two body paragraphs detailing the specific years. Cohesive devices are used adequately to guide the reader, such as 'Overall', 'Regarding weekly expenditure', and 'Turning to the percentage spent'. However, referencing and transitions are at times slightly mechanical or repetitive in structure. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two time periods, ensuring a coherent overall arrangement that presents a clear progression of information throughout the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating less common lexical items such as 'expenditure', 'proportion', 'allocated', and 'substantially'. There are occasional lexical inaccuracies and awkward collocations, such as 'households weekly expenditure' (instead of household weekly expenditure) and 'clothing & footware' (spelling error). Word choices are generally adequate to convey the intended meaning, and although minor errors exist, they do not impede communication, placing the response comfortably within the Band 6.5 to 7.0 range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and participial phrases (e.g., 'recording a value at 35%', 'followed by housing to a value around 18%'). There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as missing articles ('spent higher percentage' instead of 'spent a higher percentage') and preposition usage ('in both year' instead of 'in both years'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, though some run-on clauses occur. The errors do not impede communication, reflecting the descriptor for Band 6.

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