Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-29

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 shows information about the average expense across 7 days, of a family in one nation, in the time periods across 1968 and 2018.

Their income was most spent on food in 1968 where as in 2018 it was utilised for leisure activities, similarly it was reported for the least percentage of income spent was on purchasing fuel and power.

The percentage spent on household goods remained equal across both the years and was noted between 5-10% only. The expense used for housing in 2018 showed a considerable incline by almost 15% to 20%. More amount was spent on purchasing clothing and footwear in the year 1968 when compared to 2018 by 5%.

Cost of spending their income for transport also increased by 5% to 10% whereas expenditure for personal goods showed a decline by 5% to 10%. Throughout both the years we observed maximum change in percentage for the amount of income spent on food.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The student attempts to address the prompt by summarising the main features of the chart comparing family spending in 1968 and 2018. An overview is attempted, noting the maximum change for food and the shift towards leisure in 2018. However, there are several inaccuracies and misreadings of the data. For instance, the student states that the expense for housing in 2018 increased 'by almost 15% to 20%', whereas the chart shows housing rose from 10% to 19% (an increase of 9 percentage points). Furthermore, clothing and footwear dropped from 10% to 5% (a 5% drop, which the student captures), but transport increased from 8% to 14%, which the student inaccurately describes as rising 'by 5% to 10%'. While some comparisons are made, the data reporting contains factual errors that weaken task fulfillment.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response presents a basic logical organization, attempting to group ideas by categories and time periods. However, the paragraphing is extremely poor, with nearly the entire response crammed into a single block of text following a one-sentence introduction. Cohesive devices are weak and sometimes confusing, such as 'where as', 'similarly it was reported for', and 'Throughout both the years'. Progression between sentences lacks fluency, and the mechanical transitions impede the flow of information. Although the writer attempts to guide the reader through the comparisons, the lack of paragraph breaks and clumsy cohesive ties restrict the score to a Band 5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for basic communication but lacks precision and range. The student relies on repetitive phrases like 'percentage spent', 'expense', and 'income'. There are awkward lexical choices and unidiomatic collocations, such as 'average expense across 7 days', 'income was most spent', and 'More amount was spent'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary are marred by inaccuracies in word choice and phrasing (e.g., 'considerable incline', 'cost of spending their income'). Spelling is generally accurate, but the limited lexical flexibility and frequent awkwardness keep this criterion at Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is inconsistent. There are several grammatical errors and awkward syntactic structures throughout the text, such as 'where as in 2018 it was utilised for leisure activities, similarly it was reported for the least percentage of income spent was on...', which creates a run-on and grammatically tangled clause. Prepositional errors and awkward passive/active transitions ('Cost of spending their income for transport also increased') reduce clarity. While basic sentences are generally understandable, frequent structural faults prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

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

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