Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The bar chart shows a comparison how residents in a country spend their weekly salaries in 1968 and in 2018, on five different categories.

Overall, people used to spend more money on lesiure, while less money was spent on personal goods, fuel and power. In contrast, in past huge amount of salary was used on food as compared to other categories and small amount on fuel and power.

In 1968, individuals liked to spend more money on food, approximatel 35%, 10% of their incomes spent on housing, clothing and footware. While 8% of their salary was invested in lesiure, Transport, household goods and on personal goods, very small percentage of about 6% was invested on fuel and power.

In 2018, people spend most of their income on lesiure abou24% and only 16% on housing which was more than they used to spend in 1968. 14% was used on transport. Meanwhile, almost 4% of their income was used for buying personal goods, fuel and power which was the smallest proportion of their weekly income.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features and making comparisons between 1968 and 2018. An overview is attempted, stating that spending habits changed over time, though it contains some inaccuracies regarding the trends (e.g. claiming people used to spend more money on leisure in 1968, whereas the chart shows leisure increased significantly from 9% to 22%). Some data points are also inaccurate or incorrectly transcribed, such as stating people spent 16% on housing in 2018 when the chart indicates 19%, and stating leisure was about 24% instead of 22%. While the main categories are covered, some ideas and figures are under-developed or imprecise, placing this part of the evaluation comfortably in the middle band.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and is divided into logical paragraphs with an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs dedicated to each year. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. For instance, transitional phrases like 'In contrast, in past huge amount' and 'While 8% of their salary was invested' create abrupt shifts and awkward referencing. Paragraphing is present and helps structure the text, but the internal logical flow between sentences occasionally stumbles. To reach a higher band, the writer needs to ensure smoother transitions and more precise referencing across sentences without relying on repetitive sentence starters.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate basic trends and percentages. There are several attempts to use less common items and paraphrasing, such as 'residents', 'salaries', and 'proportion', but these are accompanied by notable inaccuracies in word choice, spelling, and collocation. For example, 'footware' is misspelled, 'lesiure' is misspelled repeatedly, and phrases like 'invested in lesiure' or 'huge amount of salary was used' sound unnatural in this context. To improve, the student should focus on accurate spelling, more precise lexical choices related to data reporting (such as 'expenditure' or 'allocation'), and avoiding repetition of basic verbs.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in sentence structures. However, there are several noticeable grammatical errors, particularly with missing articles ('in past', 'small amount on fuel'), incorrect prepositions ('spend on', 'invested on'), and fragment sentences ('approximatel 35%, 10% of their incomes spent on housing'). Furthermore, there are subject-verb agreement issues and tense slips, such as 'people spend most of their income' mixed with past tense reporting. These errors are present throughout the text but rarely impede overall communication. To achieve a higher band, the student must exercise better control over complex clauses, prepositions, and article usage.

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

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