Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The given bar chart illustrates information about families spend their weekly earning in eight different categories in one in two different years, 1978 and 2018.

Overall, highest people spend their weekly money in food in 1968,while, in 2018, people spend more money on housing.

In 1968, families spend most on food, accounted for 35% of their weekly income, while, in 2018, this figure gradually decrease by around half 17%. In housing and clothing and footwear people spend almost same there weekly earning to 10% in 1968. While, fuel and power, household goods, personal goods and transport all are under 10% people spend their weekly salary in 1968, also, leisure accounted around 7% in 1968 respectively.

In 2018, the figure almost changed because people spend their weekly income in most leisure, roughly accounted 23%. while, second highest category was housing with around 18% in 2018. Other categories such as fuel and power, clothing and footwear, household goods, personal goods, and transport are located with around 4%, 5%, 8%, 4%, and 9% respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by reporting on the main features and making comparisons between the two years, though some areas are handled more fully than others. You successfully identify the major shifts, such as food being the highest expense in 1968 and leisure or housing dominating in 2018. However, there are minor inaccuracies in reporting the data, such as misstating the year in the opening sentence as 1978 instead of 1968, and a few details are slightly under-developed or vague. To reach a higher level, ensure that all figures quoted are strictly accurate according to the chart and that every key trend is fully supported with precise data points rather than general descriptions.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the information into an introduction, an overview, and separate body paragraphs for each year. Paragraphing is used appropriately to group related ideas. However, the progression is sometimes hampered by mechanical or repetitive cohesive devices, such as the frequent use of 'while' and 'respectively' used somewhat awkwardly. Referencing is occasionally unclear, making the logical transitions between sentences feel a bit disjointed. To improve, work on varying your transition words and ensuring that each sentence flows smoothly into the next without relying on formulaic connectors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

An adequate range of vocabulary is used for the task, allowing you to discuss percentages, categories, and trends. You attempt some less common vocabulary related to data reporting, such as 'proportion', 'category', and 'figure'. However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word formation throughout the text, such as writing 'families spend their weekly earning' instead of 'earnings', and confusing word forms like 'highest people spend'. These lexical inaccuracies and occasional awkward phrasing reflect a limited control of precise terminology, though they do not seriously impede overall communication. Expanding your repertoire of precise nouns and verbs for describing statistical data will help elevate your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, attempting comparative structures like 'while, in 2018, this figure gradually decrease'. However, there are frequent errors in verb tense consistency, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions within grammatical patterns. For instance, present and past tenses are mixed inconsistently when discussing historical data, and structures like 'people spend their weekly income in most leisure' contain awkward prepositional usage. While these errors do not completely obscure your meaning, they occur regularly enough to restrict the grammatical score. Focusing on accurate tense usage for historical data and refining complex sentence structures will significantly improve your accuracy.

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