Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The bar chart illustrates  how families use their money weekly in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, the families use a cosiderable proportion of weekly income on food, the smallest proportion is spend on fuel and power. They also spend averge amount on leisure.

Firstly, in 1968 household spend 35% of weekly income on food which reduced to around 18% in 2018. Furthermore, they use 10% of their weekly funds on housing in 1968, which increased to 18% in 2018. Families use minimum money of weekly income on fuel which are 7% in 1968 and 4% in 2018.

Secondly, they use 10% amount on clothing and footware in 1968,spending on clothing and footware fell slightly reached at 5% in 2018. Family members use same amount of money in both years which are around 7.5%. They also spend 7% of weekly money on personal goods in 1968, and reached at 4% in 2018.

Lastly, Transportation also consume a small amount of weekly income that are 8% in 1968 and 14% in 2018. In addition, in 1968 leisure use 9% of weekly funds and a massive increase in 2018 that are 22%

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features of the chart, providing a clear overall trend regarding food, leisure, and housing spending. However, some ideas are under-developed or less fully covered. For instance, the overview contains vague statements like 'averge amount on leisure' rather than capturing the most striking shifts, such as the dramatic drop in food expenditure and the surge in leisure spending. While key figures are generally reported accurately—such as food dropping from 35% to 18% and housing rising from 10% to 19%—the overall selection of features lacks depth and extension, preventing the response from reaching a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The text demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the response into logical paragraphs, using transition markers such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Lastly'. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and faulty. Referencing and progression within paragraphs can be unclear, such as the sudden shift into details about individual categories without sufficient contextual tying. Paragraphing is present, but the internal logical flow of ideas often feels disjointed, resulting in a somewhat rigid framework that lacks smooth transitions between sentences and data points.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

An adequate range of vocabulary is used for the task, successfully attempting less common terms such as 'proportion', 'expenditure' (implied), and 'consume'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors like 'cosiderable', 'averge', and 'footware', alongside minor word-choice inaccuracies such as 'spend on fuel which are 7%' instead of 'spending'. While these vocabulary errors and spelling slips do not severely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score because control over less common lexical items remains inconsistent and prone to basic slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as relative clauses and comparative structures. However, there is a lack of control over grammatical accuracy, with frequent errors in verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and articles. Examples include 'household spend' instead of 'households spent', 'leisure use' instead of 'leisure used', and missing plural forms or incorrect auxiliary verbs ('fuel which are'). These errors require some effort from the reader to interpret, placing the grammatical control firmly within this band.

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