Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · 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 6.5)

The bar chart illustrates how families spent their weekly income on eight different categories in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, spending on food made up the highest share in 1968, whereas money spent on leisure was the highest by 2018. Meanwhile, the proportion of money spent on food, fuel and power, clothing and footwar, and personal goods declined over the period, while the figures for leisure, housing, and transport rose, with spending on household goods remained unchaged.

People spent the highest percentage of their weekly income on food in 1968, at 35% before declining to just over 15% by 2018. Asimilar downward trend was observed in personal goods, falling from around 9% to just under 5% by 2018, with that for fuel and power accounting approximately 5% in both years. By 2018, spending on clothing and footware had dropped by five percentage points from 10% to 5%.

By contranst, people spent on leisure rosing significantly from just under 10% in 1968 to about 23% by 2018. Similarly, the figure for transport grew from 8% to just under 15%. In addition, people spent on househol goods remained unchanged at just under 10% in both periods.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The candidate successfully addresses all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features from the bar chart comparing weekly family spending in 1968 and 2018. An effective overview is provided, highlighting the shift from food to leisure as the highest expenditure category, alongside general upward and downward trends. Key data points are accurately cited, such as food dropping from 35% to 17% (approximated well as just over 15%) and leisure rising to 22%. Comparisons are made where relevant, fulfilling all requirements of Academic Task 1.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response is logically organised, with a clear introduction, an overview paragraph, and well-structured body paragraphs focusing on decreasing and increasing trends. Cohesive devices are used appropriately to guide the reader through the data, such as 'Overall', 'Meanwhile', 'By contrast', and 'Similarly'. Paragraphing is used logically and effectively, ensuring a clear progression of ideas from start to finish.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary suitable for an Academic Task 1 response, using appropriate terms such as 'proportion', 'category', 'expenditure' (implied), and various verbs of change like 'declining', 'falling', and 'growing'. There are a few spelling and typographical errors, such as 'footwar' instead of 'footwear', 'Asimilar', 'contranst', 'rosing', and 'househol', which prevent the score from reaching a higher band. However, these errors do not impede overall communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and comparative forms. There are good control features and frequent error-free sentences, such as the opening sentence and the overview. However, some grammatical slips occur in the body paragraphs, notably awkward phrasing like 'people spent on leisure rosing significantly' and 'people spent on househol goods remained unchanged', which indicate minor inaccuracies in clause structure and word form.

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