Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-04

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 6.5)

The bar chart below compares the spending of families on different facilities.

Overall, food accounted for the highest share in 1968 whereas fuel and power were least popular. In 2018, leisure became the highest portion while personal goods plus fuel and power remained at bottom.

In 1968, people spent most of their money on food, it comprised of 35% of their weekly expenses. Housing, clothing and footwear together represented 20% of the total. Leisure, transport, personal goods, household goods comprised less than 10%. Fuel and power made up the smallest figure with just above 5% need of money per week.

In contrast, leisure became the highly popular activity among public in 2018 to spend money on, they spent more than 20% of their total income on it. In addition, housing soared just below 20%. The third highest amount was used for transport and was just below 15%. Household goods made up 10% of the total. Clothing and footwear only 5% while personal goods, fuel an power were least vital to spend money for families.

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 highlighting the main features and trends of family spending in 1968 and 2018. For instance, the student correctly identifies that food was the highest expenditure in 1968 at 35%, while leisure became the dominant category in 2018 at over 20%. Key comparisons between the two years are made effectively, such as contrasting the high cost of food in the past with its lower proportion in the modern era. However, the response tends to over-generalise slightly or bundle minor categories together rather than fully expanding on all data points with complete precision (such as grouping several smaller categories together without individual figures). This places the response firmly within the expected level for this criterion, covering all essential requirements while leaving some data points slightly under-analysed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

There is a clear logical organisation and progression throughout the response. The essay is appropriately divided into paragraphs, starting with a clear introduction and a well-formulated overview paragraph, followed by distinct body paragraphs dedicated to 1968 and 2018 respectively. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to guide the reader through the data, such as 'Overall', 'In 1968', and 'In contrast'. However, referencing and transitions are at times a little mechanical or slightly repetitive in sentence openings, which prevents the essay from achieving a higher band. Overall, the flow of information is easy to follow and the arrangement of ideas is coherent.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms related to financial data and categories, such as 'expenditures', 'accounted for', 'share', 'portion', and 'soared'. There are clear attempts to use less common vocabulary, though this is sometimes accompanied by awkward word choices or minor collocations errors, such as 'fuel an power were least vital to spend money for families' or referring to leisure as an 'activity among public... to spend money on'. Spelling is generally accurate, but occasional lexical inaccuracies and slightly unnatural phrasing prevent the vocabulary score from reaching a higher level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, utilising clauses such as 'whereas fuel and power were least popular' and 'while personal goods plus fuel and power remained at bottom'. There are some grammatical errors and awkward phrasing present in the text, such as comma splices ('most of their money on food, it comprised of 35%') and minor prepositional or article slips like 'at bottom' instead of 'at the bottom' and 'fuel an power'. Nevertheless, these errors are relatively infrequent and do not impede communication, allowing the reader to grasp the intended comparisons and data points without difficulty.

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

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