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 chart shows that the food expense in 1968 was 35% of the weekly income of the family, while it reduced to around 17% in 2018. The housing expense increased from 10% to 19% in 1968 and 2018, respectively. The fuel and power expenditure also decreased during these 50 years from 6% to around 4%. Clothing and footwear expenses decreased from 10% to 5%, while the expense of household goods remained same. The expenditure of personal good decreased from 8% to 4% during these years, however, the transport cost increased from 8% to 14%. Moreover, the leisure cost increased in these years from 9% to around 22%.

The analysis might show that the food commodity costed highest in 1968, while in 2018, leisure expenses were above all. The least expensive was fuel and power, throughout the years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all the main categories shown in the chart, successfully reporting figures for both 1968 and 2018, such as food decreasing from 35% to 17% and leisure rising from 9% to 22%. It also attempts an overview in the second paragraph by identifying that food cost the most in 1968 and leisure was highest in 2018. However, there is a minor error in stating that fuel and power was the least expensive throughout, as personal goods and clothing also reached low figures in 2018. Crucially, the response is 13 words under the mandatory 150-word minimum length requirement, which negatively impacts the task achievement score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is organised into two brief paragraphs, but the overall logical progression is somewhat hindered by the lack of a proper introduction and a very abrupt transition into the overview paragraph. Cohesive devices are used mechanically, such as repeating 'while' and 'however' ('while it reduced', 'while, the transport cost'), and referencing is occasionally basic. Paragraphing is not fully developed, as the body details and summary/overview are separated into disconnected blocks rather than forming a cohesive analytical report.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'expenditure', 'commodity', and 'proportion' equivalents. However, there are some noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'the food commodity costed highest' instead of 'cost', and 'personal good' instead of 'personal goods'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with mixed success, but communication is generally not impeded.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as the use of concessive clauses ('while it reduced to around 17%'). There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, notably 'costed highest' (incorrect past tense form of cost) and minor punctuation slips. Despite these errors, the grammatical control is mostly adequate to allow the reader to follow the intended data comparisons without significant strain.

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

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