Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-22

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 4.0)

The chart illustrate that a country provide weekly salary on their families in different years.

Overall, the most striking aspect shown in this figure is that, the figure for the food was the highest while the percentage of fuel and power was the lowest over the period of time.

We can see that, the country provide money to their people between 1968 and 2018. The food increased significantly from 9% to 30% in the period of 1968.On the other hand, the period of 2018 experienced a dramatic fall in salary from 23% to 17%, which went down.wherease, Between 1968 and 2018 there was a dramatic rise in food,that increased from 9% to 35 %.

However, the fuel and power witnessed a drastic fall from 1968 to 2018. In contrast, between 1968 and 2028, fuel and power fell minimally. The period between households goods, clothing and footware went through a minimal change which went ups and down in same period.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response attempts to describe the chart comparing family spending in 1968 and 2018, but it suffers from severe data inaccuracies and confusion. For instance, the student states that food 'increased significantly from 9% to 30%' and later from '9% to 35%', while the chart actually shows food spending decreasing from 35% to 17%. Furthermore, the numbers provided for other categories are frequently contradicted or inaccurate (e.g., mentioning 2028 instead of 2018). While an overview is attempted, the severe misinterpretation of the visual data means the main features and comparisons are not accurately reported. This corresponds to Band 4.0 descriptors where the task is responded to only minimally or with major inaccuracies.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response uses some basic cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'However', and 'In contrast'. However, the logical progression is severely undermined by contradictory statements and confusing sentence structures. Paragraphing is attempted, but the grouping of ideas lacks clear rationale, and referencing is often unclear (e.g., 'the country provide money to their people'). The overall arrangement is disjointed and difficult to follow, which fits the Band 4.0 level where information and ideas are not arranged coherently and progression is lacking.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive (e.g., 'chart', 'figure', 'money', 'food', 'fall', 'rise'). There are also notable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'provide weekly salary on their families' and 'households goods'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary result in errors or misuse. Spelling is generally acceptable, but the limited range and frequent inaccuracies in word choice place this response firmly in Band 4.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The writing displays a very limited range of sentence structures, mostly simple or attempted complex sentences that contain frequent grammatical errors. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('The chart illustrate'), tense confusion ('experienced a dramatic fall... which went down.wherease'), and prepositions misuse ('in the period of 1968'). Errors are frequent, often distort meaning, and occasionally strain the reader's comprehension, aligning with the Band 4.0 criteria.

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

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