Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-06

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 4.0)

The charts illustarte information about how families in a single countires used their house income per week in 1968 comapred to 2018.

Overall, families in 1968 spend most of their income on food whf JSGMVXC<l: J\ile in 2018 zA V6money on leisure.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

The response identifies two relevant headline points: food took the largest share in 1968, while leisure was the largest category in 2018. However, it gives no usable figures or comparisons beyond these broad observations, and the second point is partly obscured by corrupted text. The chart’s other major changes—such as food falling from about 35% to 17%, leisure rising from about 9% to 22%, and housing increasing—are not reported. The response is also far below the required 150 words, so it cannot provide an adequate summary of the main features. To improve, write a clear overview and support it with several accurate comparisons drawn from the chart.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: an opening sentence introduces the chart, followed by an overview beginning with “Overall”. This gives the reader a simple progression from topic to main point. However, the response ends after these two sentences, with no body paragraph to develop or compare the information. The corrupted sequence in the overview also interrupts the flow and makes the intended contrast difficult to follow. Use separate paragraphs for the overview and selected details, and connect comparisons clearly—for example, explain how spending on food changed alongside leisure and housing. This would create a more complete and coherent report.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The response uses a few relevant terms, including “families”, “income”, “food” and “leisure”, so the topic is recognisable. However, the vocabulary range is very limited, and several spelling errors make the writing less clear: “illustarte”, “countires” and “comapred”. The phrase “house income” is not a natural way to describe the chart’s measure; “weekly income” or “weekly spending” would be more appropriate. The corrupted text “whf JSGMVXC<l” also prevents the reader from understanding part of the key comparison. Practise accurate spelling and use chart-reporting vocabulary such as “accounted for”, “share” and “rose/fell” to describe the data precisely.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts a complex comparison in the opening sentence and uses an overview marker, “Overall”, which shows some awareness of report structure. However, grammatical control is inconsistent. In “families … used their house income per week”, the possessive and noun phrase are awkwardly formed, and “families in 1968 spend” uses a present-tense verb where a past form is needed. The overview’s second sentence is incomplete or corrupted, so its clause structure cannot be followed. The short response also provides little evidence of a range of sentence forms. Build clear, complete sentences with accurate past-tense reporting, such as “In 1968, families spent the largest proportion on food.”

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