Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-01

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 information about the families average weekly expenditure in one country in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, it is evident that in 1968 people spent more money on food, whereas in 2018 average income spent on leisure activities. Moreover, lowest amount was spent on fuel and power in 1968, while fuel and power and personal goods costed low income in 2018.

The proportion of weekly income spent on food stood at 35% in 1968, it dropped dramatically to around 17% in 2018. In contrast, the weekly cost on housing, transport and leisure activities increased. It was 10%, nearly 8% and 9% in 1968 respectively. Subsequently, the proportion of weekly income expenditure rose significantly to approximately 19%, 14% and 22%in 2018 correspondingly.

However, the weekly spending on household goods remained stable at nearly 8% in both years. The percentage of money spent on fuel and power, clothing and footware and personal goods dropped in 2018 as compare with 1968's cost. The proportion of expenditure on fuel and power reduced slightly from roughly 7% in 1968 to 4% in 2018. The figure for clothing and footware decreased gradually from 15% in 1968 to 5% in 2018. Moreover, the percentage of income utilized on personal goods dipped from around 8% in 1968 to 4% in 2018.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by providing a clear overview and reporting the main features of the chart comparing 1968 and 2018. For instance, you correctly noted the significant drop in food expenditure from 35% to 17% and the rise in leisure. However, the overview tends to over-generalise slightly in the second sentence ("while fuel and power and personal goods costed low income in 2018"), and some data points contain minor inaccuracies compared to the visual source, such as stating clothing and footwear started at 15% in 1968 when the chart shows 10%. To reach a higher band, your overview should be more precise and all reported data figures must align strictly with the source material without minor misreadings.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your response has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical structure, moving from an introduction and overview into well-defined body paragraphs covering major trends. You make use of cohesive devices to guide the reader, such as "Overall", "In contrast", and "However". Nevertheless, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or slightly faulty, as seen in the phrasing of transitional sentences like "Subsequently, the proportion of weekly income expenditure rose significantly to approximately 19%, 14% and 22%in 2018 correspondingly," where referencing becomes repetitive and overly rigid. To improve, work on varying your cohesive ties more naturally and ensuring referencing links back to your ideas fluidly without relying on formulaic listing structures.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing you to convey the main trends effectively using terms like "proportion", "expenditure", "dropped dramatically", and "remained stable". However, there are noticeable lexical and word-form errors that prevent a higher score, such as writing "costed low income" instead of costing a low proportion of income, "footware" instead of the correct spelling footwear, and "as compare with" instead of as compared with. You also rely heavily on basic synonyms. To achieve a higher band, you need to demonstrate a wider range of less common lexical items with greater precision and eliminate spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and comparative structures throughout the report. There are several grammatical errors and awkward structures present, such as "illustrates the information about the families average weekly expenditure" (missing possessive apostrophe on families and unnecessary article 'the'), "lowest amount was spent" (missing article), and spacing errors like "22%in 2018 correspondingly". Despite these errors, they rarely impede communication. To move up to a higher band, you need to produce a greater frequency of error-free complex sentences and maintain tighter control over prepositions, articles, and punctuation.

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

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