Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-19

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 table illustrates the details about how civilians in a state pay out their seven days investment in 1968 and in 2018.

In the chart of spending weekly income, the ratio of food was greater than others and fuel and power were least in this table.

In 1968, clan spend their weekly income 35 percent on food which was highest spending in 1968. After that, in 1968, the percentage of housing, clothing and footware were same ehich was 10 percent. Then leisure had 9 percent of spending in 1968. Spending income in Household goods, personal goods and transport ratio was 8 percent. Fuel and power were the least in spending salary in 1968 whose average was 6 percent.

In 2018 families spend not much their income as compare to 1968. In leisure, they spend most of their income in this table whose average was 22. Then individuals disburse their weekly salary 19 percent in housing and 17 percent in food. In transport they spend 14 percent, in household goods they spend 8 percent and in clothing and footware they spend 5 percent of their weekly income. At last families didn't spend much money on personal goods, fuel and power whose percentage was 4 percent.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student attempts to address the prompt by reporting figures from the chart for both years. However, there are significant flaws in the selection and reporting of information. The introduction inaccurately refers to a 'table' and uses unnatural phrasing like 'civilians in a state pay out their seven days investment'. While the response does mention key trends—such as food being highest in 1968 and leisure being highest in 2018—the data reporting is overly mechanical, listing nearly every single category with repetitive phrasing ('In 1968... spend their weekly income', 'In 2018 families spend...'). Furthermore, there is no true overview provided to highlight the major overarching shifts, such as the dramatic decrease in spending on food versus the increase in spending on leisure and housing. This places the response firmly within Band 5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is organized into four distinct paragraphs, attempting an introduction, body paragraphs for each year, and a concluding sentence. However, the logical progression is weak. The second paragraph makes vague, unsupported assertions before jumping into specific years. Cohesive devices are used mechanically and repetitively, with almost every sentence starting with time markers like 'In 1968' or 'After that', or simple transition words like 'Then' and 'At last'. Referencing is frequently faulty, as seen in phrases like 'whose average was' applied incorrectly to various non-numerical subjects. Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal cohesion within paragraphs lacks sophistication, resulting in a disjointed reading experience that aligns with Band 5 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The lexical range is extremely limited and repetitive. The student relies heavily on basic vocabulary such as 'spend', 'income', 'percentage', and 'goods', repeating these words constantly throughout the text. There are numerous unnatural collocations and inaccurate word choices, such as 'civilians in a state pay out their seven days investment', 'spend salary', and 'disburse their weekly salary'. Spelling errors also occur, such as 'ehich' instead of 'which' and 'footware' instead of 'footwear'. The vocabulary used is barely adequate to communicate the task requirements, restricting the lexical score to Band 4.5, rounded to 5.0 based on standard band scoring rules.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The grammatical range is very limited, consisting mostly of simple and basic complex sentences that frequently contain errors. There is a lack of control over tense consistency and subject-verb agreement, evident in sentences like 'families spend not much their income as compare to 1968' and 'Fuel and power were the least in spending salary in 1968 whose average was 6 percent.' Punctuation is basic, and awkward clause structures disrupt the flow of meaning. Because errors are frequent and often cause difficulty for the reader—requiring effort to parse the intended meaning—the performance corresponds to Band 5.

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

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