Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-27

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 5.0)

The chart represents information about how families tends to spent their weekly income for a perticular country from differnet span of time1968 and in 2018.

The chart mainly tells us about the difference of lifestyle, that people had and their way of senpding their hard earned money in different sections.

So the comparison is between two different eras in which two perticular year has been picked to determine the outcome, which containing categories such as food, housing, fuel and power, clothing and footware, household goods, personal goods, transport and leisure. As per the chart report for year 1968 the families used to spend most of the money for a particular category which was food as compared with 2018 data its actually double and the rest of the money for other categories.

The comparison futher shows the weekly spending difference rise in spent for housing incresed by 8%, for fuel and power it drops by a fewer margin approximately 2%, in clothing and footware category it decreased by 5%, household goods remained constant, whereas personal goods it dcreases by ~4% which is half of then it was years ago, for transport it has increased by 5-6% but the in leisure category the change is more than twice than it was in year 1968.

In summary, the figures show a clear shift away from basic necessities such as food and clothing towards housing, transport and leisure over the period shown.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response covers all key parts of the task by reporting the main features of the chart comparing 1968 and 2018. An overview is successfully provided in the final paragraph, highlighting the shift away from basic necessities toward housing, transport, and leisure. Key data points are generally accurate, such as food dropping from 35% to 17% and leisure rising to 22%. However, there are some minor inaccuracies and vague descriptions, such as stating that housing increased by 8% (it actually increased by 9%, from 10% to 19%) and using vague phrases like 'fuel and power it drops by a fewer margin'. While the main trends are identified, the development lacks precision in places, placing this securely at Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to logically structure information by introducing the chart, breaking down categories, and providing an overview. However, the paragraphing is poor, with unnecessary fragmentation, such as standalone single-sentence paragraphs at the beginning ('The chart mainly tells us...'). Cohesive devices are used awkwardly or repetitively, such as 'So the comparison is...' and 'The comparison futher shows...'. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical progression within the body paragraphs is disrupted by run-on sentences and a lack of smooth transitions between the numerous data points being listed.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The lexical resource is limited and displays noticeable errors. The student attempts less common vocabulary such as 'perticular', 'differnet', and 'incresed', but spelling mistakes are frequent throughout the response (e.g., 'tends to spent', 'footware', 'futher', 'dcreases'). There is also inappropriate word formation and collocation, such as 'rise in spent for housing'. While the vocabulary is adequate to convey the basic meaning of the chart and the final summary is fairly well expressed, the frequent spelling and word-form errors restrict the score to Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('families tends to spent'), incorrect verb tenses ('which containing categories'), and missing prepositions or articles. Run-on sentences and punctuation slips also occur frequently, for instance in the third paragraph where multiple clauses are strung together without proper punctuation. While meaning is generally recoverable despite these errors, the high frequency of inaccurate complex structures prevents the response from achieving a Band 6.

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