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 chart illustrates the weekly spending of families in one specific country in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, the chart reveal significant changes in families spending over fifty year period. Food showed the highest spending at early, while fuel and power indicated the lowest expenditure.

In 1968, food was accounted the largest accounting to closely 35% of weelky income. However, by 2018, this proportion is dropped significantly to around 17%. Housing showed an opposite trend, in 1968 it made up small part roughly around 10% and increased nearly to 18% in 2018. Whereas fuel and power are 12% in 1968 and it was declined to 5% by 2018.

spending on the cloting and footware was started 10% in 1968, but it was dropped to 5% by 2018. While the household good are similar throughout the period, personal goods expressed 8% in 1968 and went down to 3% in 2018. The transport and leisure both twice as higher in 2018 compared to 1968 weekly income.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully covers all parts of the task by presenting an overview and reporting the main features of the chart for both 1968 and 2018. Key trends are identified, such as the dramatic fall in food spending and the rise in leisure expenditure. There is a clear overall trend established in the second paragraph. However, there is a tendency to over-generalise or slightly misstate some figures, such as stating fuel and power was 12% in 1968 when the chart shows 6%, which prevents the response from reaching a higher level. Overall, all key categories are addressed with appropriate comparisons made between the two years.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to group information logically by categories across paragraphs. Paragraphing is used to separate the introduction, overview, and body details. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, transitional phrases like 'Whereas fuel and power are 12%' and 'While the household good are similar' create choppy transitions and referencing is not always completely clear. Logical progression is occasionally disrupted by awkward clause linking, which keeps the essay securely at this level.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'proportion', 'expenditure', and 'opposite trend'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and spelling, including 'weelky' instead of weekly, 'cloting' instead of clothing, 'footware' instead of footwear, and 'good' instead of goods. Furthermore, phrasing like 'food was accounted the largest accounting' demonstrates awkward word formation and collocation errors. These lexical slips and spelling mistakes prevent communication from being entirely smooth.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as subordinate clauses ('Although', 'while'). However, there are frequent errors in grammar, including subject-verb agreement issues ('the chart reveal', 'fuel and power are'), passive voice construction errors ('food was accounted the largest'), and missing or incorrect articles ('the transport and leisure both twice as higher'). These errors in grammar and tense selection occur across the text and can cause occasional difficulty for the reader, reflecting typical limitations of this band.

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