Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-17
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 shows the percentage of average weekly spending by families in 1968 and 2018.
The greatest decrease is in food decreasing from 35 percent in 1968 to 15 percent in 2018. Next came housing and transport which increase with the years spending on housing increase from 10 percent to near 20 percent but spending percentage of household goods remain same in both 1968 and 2018. Surprisingly Fuel and power decrease from about 7 percent in 1968 to about 4 percent in 2018 similarly spending on personal goods and clothing footwear is shocking which decrease from about 10 percent in 1968 to 5 percent in 2018 but there is a dramaticaly rise in the percentage of leisure which increase from 7 percent in 1968 to 22 percent in 2018.
The significant changes reflect that over the period the weekly spending by families rise and decrease with the living standards and the lifestyles based on comfort and conveince.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response covers the main features of the chart, noting significant shifts such as the decrease in food spending and the rise in leisure and housing. However, there are some inaccuracies in reporting specific data points; for instance, food is stated to decrease to 15 percent in 2018 when the chart shows it at 17 percent, and fuel and power is misread slightly. Furthermore, the overview provided in the final paragraph is very brief and general. Overall, the response addresses the prompt and presents a clear picture of the data, but minor inaccuracies and a lack of a thorough overview keep this criterion at Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The response has a coherent overall arrangement, grouping some data points together and moving from 1968 to 2018 comparisons. However, the text suffers from a lack of proper paragraphing, as nearly the entire body of the response is crammed into a single massive, run-on paragraph. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes repetitive, and the lack of clear logical division between introduction, body, and conclusion impacts readability. Referencing between sentences could be managed much better with appropriate transition markers. Therefore, a Band 5.0 is appropriate.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is adequate to communicate the basic trends of the chart, utilizing terms such as 'percentage', 'decrease', 'increase', and 'spending'. There are attempts at less common lexical items like 'dramatically' (though misspelled as 'dramaticaly') and 'conveince' (misspelled as 'conveince'). Word choice and spelling errors occur with some frequency, such as 'clothing footwear' instead of 'clothing and footwear' and 'remain same'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to a Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is weak. There are numerous run-on sentences lacking appropriate punctuation or conjunctions, such as 'Next came housing and transport which increase with the years spending on housing increase from 10 percent to near 20 percent...'. Subject-verb agreement errors are frequent (e.g., 'spending... increase', 'food decreasing'). Punctuation is largely neglected, with sentences chaining together without periods or commas. These frequent errors cause difficulty for the reader and reflect Band 5.0 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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