Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The bar garph illustrates how families in one country spent their weekly stiphend in year 1968 and 2018.

Overall, in 1968, the highest proportion of income spent in food, while fule and power contributes the lowest. In 2018, people spent the large amount of money on leisure time, whereas fuel and power and personal goods spent the least amount of income.

In 1968, the food contained 30% from weekly income, whereas proportion of housing, clothing and footware contributed 10%. The leisure time accounter for 9%, followed by 8% for personal good and transport. However contribution in fuel and power was around, at 6%. In contrast, in both year household goods was equally performed, approximate 8% respectively.

In 2018, people spent the largest amount in lesuire activity, which consumed around 22% from their weekly income. The second highest catagory was housing was just over 19%, food is declined to 16%. Further, transport accounted for 14% and clothing, footware spent exact 5%. The proportion of fuel power and personal goods was remained similiar, which experienced around 4% respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by presenting an overview and reporting the main features of the chart regarding weekly family spending in 1968 and 2018. A clear overall trend is identified, noting shifts such as the drop in food expenditure and the rise in leisure spending. Key data points are accurately selected and compared, such as food starting at a high proportion and leisure peaking in 2018. However, there is a minor tendency to over-generalise or slightly misread isolated figures, such as stating food was 30% in 1968 when the chart shows 35%, which prevents the response from reaching the highest bands. Nevertheless, the main features are well covered and supported with relevant figures, demonstrating a solid understanding of the visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to organise information logically by time period and category. Information is grouped into paragraphs with an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs focusing on the respective years. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'In 1968', 'In contrast', and 'In 2018'. However, cohesion can sometimes feel a bit mechanical or repetitive in structure, and referencing is occasionally slightly loose, as seen in phrases like 'equally performed' or 'was remained similiar'. Paragraphing is present and appropriate, but the logical progression between sentences could be smoother to fully achieve a higher band level.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate main points about percentages and spending categories. There are several spelling and word choice errors, such as 'garph' instead of graph, 'stiphend' instead of stipend, 'fule' instead of fuel, 'catagory' instead of category, and 'lesuire' instead of leisure. The student attempts less common vocabulary like 'proportion' and 'contribution', but noticeable errors in spelling, word form, and collocation appear throughout the text, such as 'food contained 30%' and 'clothing, footware spent exact 5%', which reflects a more limited lexical control typical of this level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use varied structures. There are some error-free sentences, but frequent grammatical and punctuation errors persist throughout the text. Examples include article and preposition errors such as 'highest proportion of income spent in food', subject-verb agreement issues like 'the proportion of fuel power and personal goods was remained similiar', and awkward phrasing like 'household goods was equally performed'. These errors occur regularly across the text, though they rarely impede the overall communication of the data.

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