Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-24

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 bar graph illustrates the amount of money people spend on various factors of daily life throughout the period of 1968 to 2018.

Overall, it can be observed that in 1968 the lump sum amount of the income was used on food items, while the least amount was spend on fuel and power. The rest of the income was distributed in a much average percentage amoung other staples. On the other hand, in 2018, unlike the previous year, the highest consumer of income are the housing and leisure, and fuel and housing, clothig amd footwear and personal good remain the least income consumers.

First of all, starting with the year 1968, food was the top expense of the hosehold ledger with the hefety share of 35% of the total weekly income, followed by housing and clothing, and footware claiming 10% of the budget. Compairetively, fuel and power, household goods, personal goods, transport and liesure contributed less the 10% of the whole budget.

Secondly, In 2018, the budget expense items remained the same, but their percentage fluctuated and recorded accuratley the economic changes that occured throughout the past decades.It is evident from the graph that the expense priorities changed with housing and leisure being the top expense in the weekly income, holding the percentage of less then 20% and above 20% repectively. Subsequently, food and transport are recorded as the second highest income constituting more then 15% and less then 15% of the total income. Additionally, household goods hold above 5% of the wages, and the fuel and power, clothing and footware and personal goods constitutes an insignificat amount of less then 5% of the total earnings.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student covers all parts of the task well, successfully identifying the main features and trends from the chart comparing 1968 and 2018 spending habits. The overview highlights key shifts, such as food dominating in 1968 while housing and leisure took the lead in 2018. Data points are generally accurate, noting the 35% peak for food in 1968 and the rise of leisure above 20% in 2018. However, there are some minor inaccuracies and awkward phrasing in reporting specific percentages, such as claiming leisure and housing in 2018 were 'less then 20% and above 20% repectively' when leisure was actually 22% and housing 19%. Despite these minor data reading slips, the response fully addresses the prompt requirements with a clear overall summary.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is logically organised with a clear introduction, an overall trend paragraph, and distinct body paragraphs for each year. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader through the data, such as 'First of all, starting with the year 1968' and 'On the other hand, in 2018'. However, some paragraphing and referencing choices feel slightly mechanical, and transitions between sentences can be abrupt. For instance, the second paragraph awkwardly groups multiple categories together in a run-on manner: 'fuel and housing, clothig amd footwear and personal good remain the least income consumers.' While the overall progression is coherent, these mechanical flaws in cohesion limit the score to a solid band 6.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student attempts a range of vocabulary suitable for describing graphical data, using terms like 'fluctuated', 'priorities', 'constitutes', and 'insignificant amount'. However, there are numerous spelling mistakes and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'clothig' for clothing, 'amd' for and, 'hefety' for hefty, 'Compairetively' for comparatively, 'liesure' for leisure, 'accuratley' for accurately, 'repectively' for respectively, and 'insignificat' for insignificant. While the vocabulary is adequate to convey the intended meaning, the high frequency of spelling and typographical errors prevents the response from achieving a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and participial phrases such as 'with housing and leisure being the top expense' and 'It is evident from the graph that the expense priorities changed with housing and leisure being the top expense'. There are several grammatical and punctuation errors, including missing prepositions ('spend on fuel and power' instead of 'spent'), incorrect verb forms ('least amount was spend'), and minor agreement issues ('the highest consumer of income are the housing and leisure'). Punctuation is occasionally faulty, such as starting a sentence with 'Secondly, In 2018'. These errors do not impede overall communication, placing the response firmly in the band 6 category.

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