Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-20

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)

Cambridge - 17

Practice Test 3 - TASK - 1 -

The Bar chart illustrates the median weekly expenditure in the Country by households in the year 1968 and 2018

Overall, Food is the holds the major proportion of Expenditure By households in 1968 while leisure is Accounted for larger percentage in 2018. fuel and power expenditure was less than all other weekly expenses.

The Consumption of food was 35% in 1968 But it declines to 17% in 2018 whereas Expenditure percentage of weekly expenditure on fuel and power, clothing and footwear and personal goods was 6%, 10% and 8% which later reduced to 4% 5% and 4% respectively. In addition, household goods record some equal proportion of expenditure by families of their weekly incomes.

On the other hand, people began to sparge their weekly income spending on housing, transport and leisure. The highest expenditure is incurred on leisure which is More than 20%. Moreover, Housing is also nearly 20% with, and transport Expenses is less than 15% in 2018.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features of the bar chart comparing weekly household expenditure in 1968 and 2018. An overview is successfully presented in the second paragraph, capturing the main trend that food dominated in 1968 while leisure grew significantly by 2018. Key data points are cited, such as food dropping from 35% to 17% and leisure rising to over 20%. However, there are minor inaccuracies in reporting some of the minor categories, and the sentence "household goods record some equal proportion of expenditure" is vague and misses the exact data point that household goods remained static at 8%. Despite these minor flaws, the task is adequately fulfilled, warranting a solid band 6.5 or 7.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is logically organised into four distinct paragraphs: an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs detailing the specific categories. Cohesive devices such as "whereas", "In addition", and "On the other hand" are used to connect ideas and create a clear progression. However, paragraphing and sentence boundaries occasionally show awkward mechanics, such as starting a sentence with lowercase letters or slightly disjointed referencing (e.g., "sparge their weekly income spending" where word choice impairs cohesion). Overall arrangement is coherent, placing it firmly at a band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully using terms like "expenditure", "proportion", "consumption", and "decline". However, there are several lexical errors and inappropriate word choices, such as "holds the major proportion", "is Accounted for", and the misuse of the word "sparge" instead of spend or allocate. Spelling and word formation are generally clear, but these limitations in less common vocabulary and collocation restrict the score to a band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using clauses of contrast effectively ("whereas", "while"). However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with capitalization ("The Bar chart", "Overall, Food is the holds", "fuel and power"), missing articles, and subject-verb agreement issues ("Food is the holds the major proportion", "is Accounted for"). Punctuation errors also occur, such as missing full stops and erratic comma usage. These errors occasionally disrupt the flow, placing accuracy in the band 5.5 to 6.0 range.

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