Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-21

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 6.0)

The given chart illustrates the data about how families spent their weekly income in 1968 an 2018 in a country.

Overall, people spent mostly on food, housing and their leisure on both years and minimum money is used to buy fuel and power. While, household goods remain same.

Generally, families spend approximately 35% of their income to buy food in 1968 which was significantly reduced to 17% in 2018. The trends changes with the passage of time as families allocated around 8 to 10% money for housing, clothing and footware and for their leisure in 1968 this amount of money surged in between 15% and 22% in 2018, Hefty amount of money consumed for leisure in 2018.

In addition, Household remains same 7% in both years. The cost of fuel and power, clothing and footware, and personal goods were reduced in in 2018. As, it was between 5% to 10% in 1968 which were reduced in 2018 and hit less than 5% to the familes in a country.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student covers the main features of the chart, successfully identifying key trends such as the significant drop in food expenditure and the rise in leisure and housing costs between 1968 and 2018. However, there are some inaccuracies and vague statements in data reporting. For instance, the claim that household goods 'remain same' (or 'Household remains same 7%') contains errors, as the chart shows household goods at 8% in both years. Additionally, some descriptions of proportions are overly generalised or slightly misreported. While an overview is attempted, it lacks precision. Consequently, this performance aligns best with Band 5.5 to 6.0 descriptors, earning a Band 6.0 for addressing all parts of the task with relevant, though occasionally flawed, information.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is structured into an introduction and body paragraphs, providing a coherent overall arrangement. There are attempts to link ideas using transition words such as 'Overall', 'While', and 'In addition'. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, and paragraphing could be improved to better group related categories. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the phrase 'The trends changes with the passage of time', which disrupts the logical flow. The progression of ideas is sometimes hindered by abrupt shifts between data points. These features reflect Band 6, where the text is coherent overall but displays some faulty or mechanical cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully employing terms like 'expenditure', 'allocated', 'surged', and 'proportion' (though occasionally relying on simpler equivalents). There are several lexical and collocation errors, such as 'minimum money is used', 'hefty amount of money consumed', and spelling/form issues like 'footware' instead of 'footwear'. Word choices such as 'hit less than 5%' are unnatural. Nevertheless, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main points without major impediments to understanding, fitting the Band 6 descriptor.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response includes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'While, household goods remain same' and 'The trends changes with the passage of time as families allocated around 8 to 10% money...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('trends changes', 'Household remains'), missing articles, awkward prepositions ('in 1968 an 2018', 'reduced in in 2018'), and tense inconsistencies. While these errors do not completely obscure meaning, they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from reaching a higher band. This performance is characteristic of Band 5.5, rounded to Band 6 given the successful use of some complex structures.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.