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 bar graph illustrates the families in one country spent their weely income in eight different categories in the year 1968 and in 2018.

Overall it can be seen that the the highest income spent on food in 1968, similarly in 2018 most of the income spent on Leisure activity, spending on household goods remained constant in both the year, Least income invest on fuel and power in 1968 as well as in 2018.

In 1968, weekly income is spent on food which accounted 35% and recorded highest proportion of their income on particularly this category, where as spending on food in 2008 decreased to arround 17%. Investing on housing was 10% in 1968, which rose to 19% in 2018. weekly earning spent on fuel and power as well as on personal good was least, 7% and 9% in 1968 respectively, Whereas, spending earnings on fule and power and personal goods recorded 4% in 2018. Earning spent on Household goods recorded 8% in both the year. In contrat spending money on Transport and leisure is completely opposite in 2018, compared spending with the year 1968.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by providing an overview and reporting key features from both years. The opening overview attempts to capture the main trends, noting that food was highest in 1968 and leisure in 2018. However, some ideas are under-developed or inaccurately described. For instance, the writer states that fuel and power was the least invested category, but personal goods and other areas shared similar low figures, and some data points are slightly imprecise, such as claiming housing rose from 10% to 19% while describing other figures loosely. To reach a higher level, the response would need to ensure all highlighted trends are fully supported with accurate data and extended comparisons without generalisation errors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the response into an introduction, an overview paragraph, and a body paragraph. However, the organisation suffers from structural weaknesses, particularly the lack of proper paragraphing in the body where all details are crammed together, creating a block of text. Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or faulty, such as repetitive transitions ('Whereas', 'Similarly') and unclear referencing ('in both the year'). Progression is hindered by these abrupt shifts between categories. To improve Coherence and Cohesion, the writer should use distinct paragraphs to separate major trends and employ a wider, more natural range of cohesive devices to guide the reader smoothly through the comparisons.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate to convey the basic information, meeting the minimum requirements for the task. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'proportion', 'category', and 'invested', but these are often accompanied by word choice and collocation errors, such as 'Least income invest on' and 'personal good'. Additionally, there are spelling errors like 'weely', 'arround', 'fule', and 'contrat'. These errors do not completely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score. To achieve a higher band, the student needs to expand their range of functional vocabulary for describing data trends and eliminate basic spelling and word-form inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence forms, such as 'In 1968, weekly income is spent on food which accounted 35%...'. However, there are frequent errors in verb tenses, articles, and prepositions within grammatical patterns, including 'the highest income spent on food' and 'spending on household goods remained constant in both the year'. Punctuation is also weak, with missing commas and run-on phrasing. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are persistent enough to keep the writing at this level. To improve, the writer must focus on consistent tense control when describing historical data and ensure correct subject-verb agreement and article usage.

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