Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-28
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 illustrates the money spent on different factors by families from their weekly salaries in a country in both years 1968 and 2018.
Overall, the data clearly shows people had spent the highest on food items and liesure, fuel and power is the least category which families had spent on. Whereas other gives the fluctuating proportions of weekly income.
In 1968, familie's weekly income spent is 35% which record the highest among other catogaries, housing, clothing and footware takes the second place which is 10% also for liesure is 9% of thier salaries. However personal, household and transport is minimal spending which shows 8-9%.
In 2018 housing takes the first place on spending patter 19%, second place is food 18%, footware, house hold goods around 10-15% and spending money personal and fuel is minimal of 5% of their weekly income.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The response satisfies the prompt partially. Crucially, the text is under the 140-word mark at 141 words, meaning the length penalty applies for falling short of the 150-word minimum requirement. Regarding content, the student attempts to summarise the main features, correctly identifying food as highest in 1968 (35%) and housing/leisure shifts in 2018. However, there are significant data inaccuracies: the student states housing was 19% in 2018 (which is correct), but then claims 'second place is food 18%', whereas food actually dropped to 17%, and leisure rose to 22% which was overlooked as the leading category in 2018. The overview contains grammatical errors ('fuel and power is the least category'). Because of inaccurate data reporting, under-development of features, and the word-count penalty, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The response has some basic organisation with an introductory sentence and body paragraphs attempting to contrast 1968 and 2018. However, overall progression is weak. The second paragraph attempts an overview ('Overall, the data clearly shows...'), but it contains confused grammar and is placed awkwardly. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion is faulty and mechanical. Referencing is often unclear, such as 'Whereas other gives the fluctuating proportions' where 'other' has no clear antecedent. Transition words like 'However' are used incorrectly to link clauses that do not contrast logically. These cohesive shortcomings justify a band 5.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive ('spending', 'weekly income', 'place'). There are numerous word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'liesure' instead of 'leisure', 'catogaries' instead of 'categories', 'thier' instead of 'their', and 'footware' instead of 'footwear'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary ('fluctuating proportions', 'minimal spending'), but these are either inaccurate in context or awkwardly phrased. While meaning is generally retrievable, the frequent spelling slips and limited lexical range keep this performance at a band 5.0 level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('familie's weekly income spent is...', 'fuel and power is the least category which families had spent on'), incorrect tense usage ('people had spent'), and run-on structures ('In 1968, familie's weekly income spent is 35% which record the highest among other catogaries, housing, clothing and footware takes the second place...'). Punctuation is also poorly handled, with clauses run together without proper conjunctions or full stops. Due to the high frequency of grammatical errors that occasionally impede fluency, a band 5.0 is warranted.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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