Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-02

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 chart illustrates the average weekley expenditures of families in 1968 and in 2018.

Overall, food recorded the highest spending in 1968, housing and leisure followed a slight similar trend, While fuel and power experienced the lowest figure, rest of the spending remained constant below half of the weekley investment.

It is evident that, food recorded the highest spending rate in 1968 at 35% undoubtly, then declined sharply and stood at 17 percent approximately by the year in 2018. However, housing and leisure followed a slight similar trend on weekely expenditures, at the peak of 22% approximately and lowest of 10 percent respectively.

Fuel and power had the lowest spending rate throughout all goods in both years, in 1968 and 2018 average at 5%. clothing and software were at 10 percent in 1968 then fall gradually and stood at 5 percent in 2018. Households goods still unchanged stood at 7% approximately.

Personal goods followed a similar trend with household goods but decreased slightly in 2018, transport experienced greatest growth in 2018, but declined gradually b

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the task only partially because key data points are inaccurate or missing, and the conclusion is left unfinished. While the overview attempts to summarise the main trends, some details are contradictory or imprecise, such as claiming fuel and power averaged 5% in both years when the chart shows 6% and 4%, or misreporting household goods as 7%. Furthermore, the final sentence trails off incomplete (‘transport experienced greatest growth in 2018, but declined gradually b’). Ideas are limited and under-developed, and the lack of a fully realized selection of data points prevents the response from achieving a higher score.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some organisation evident through basic paragraphing and introductory signposts like ‘Overall,’ and ‘It is evident that,’ but the progression lacks clarity overall. Cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or misused, leading to choppy transitions between sentences. For instance, clauses are sometimes joined abruptly with commas rather than appropriate conjunctions, as seen in ‘housing and leisure followed a slight similar trend, While fuel and power experienced the lowest figure, rest of the spending remained constant.’ Referencing is also occasionally unclear, and the repetitive structure of sentences limits the overall flow of the report.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate for describing statistical charts. There are noticeable spelling errors and awkward word choices, such as ‘weekley’ instead of weekly, ‘undoubtly’ instead of undoubtedly, and ‘clothing and software’ instead of clothing and footwear. Less common vocabulary items are attempted, but inaccuracies in word form and collocation occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. To improve, the writer should focus on precise lexical selection related to data trends and eliminate basic spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response displays a limited range of sentence structures, and attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including tense inconsistencies, missing prepositions, and incorrect verb forms such as ‘then fall gradually and stood’ instead of fell and stood, and ‘Households goods still unchanged stood’ where the verb is missing. Punctuation control is weak, characterized by comma splices and run-on structures. These persistent errors demand noticeable effort from the reader to parse the intended meaning.

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