Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-18

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 5.5)

The bar chart illustrates part of weekly income spent on different categories between the years 1968 and 2018. Money was spent on several categories like food, housing, fuel and power, clothing and footware, household goods, personal goods, transport, and leisure.

Overall, in 1968 higher money was invested to buy food, which later shifted on leisure activities in 2018. Besides, stable spending was incurred on household goods in both the period around 8%. Three categories showed rise in expenditure in later year like housing, transport, and leisure while rest four observed a downfall except household goods which was stagnant.

In 1968 most of the income was spent to buy food by 35% ;however in 2018 the expenditure incurred on food decreased almost by half.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student has attempted to summarise the main features of the chart, providing an overall trend and some specific data points such as the 35% figure for food in 1968. However, the response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, stopping at only 123 words. Consequently, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and parts of the chart are left under-developed or omitted. Furthermore, there are minor inaccuracies in reporting data, such as stating that the expenditure on food decreased 'almost by half' when it actually dropped from 35% to 17% (more than halved). Due to the severe length penalty and restricted data coverage, this response falls into Band 5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The text is generally coherent and shows an attempt at logical organisation, beginning with an introduction, moving to an overview paragraph, and then touching upon specific data details. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'Overall', 'Besides', and 'however'. Paragraphing is attempted, though the division is slightly fragmented. While the overall progression is visible, referencing is occasionally awkward ('higher money was invested', 'rest four observed a downfall'), making the logical flow somewhat mechanical. The organisational structure is sufficient for a Band 6 score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms related to data trends and categories (e.g., 'illustrates', 'expenditure', 'stagnant', 'downfall'). However, there are noticeable lexical inaccuracies and awkward collocations, such as 'higher money was invested' instead of 'more money was spent', and a spelling error ('footware' instead of 'footwear'). The vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the meaning, but frequent lexical slips prevent the response from achieving a higher band, placing it firmly at Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'Three categories showed rise in expenditure in later year like housing, transport, and leisure while rest four observed a downfall...'. Grammatical control is variable; there are missing articles ('showed rise', 'in later year'), prepositions ('spent to buy' instead of 'spent on buying'), and awkward phrasing. Nevertheless, the grammatical errors do not severely impede overall communication, allowing the reader to grasp the intended meaning. This performance is reflective of a Band 5 grammatical range and accuracy.

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

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