Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-07

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 chart illustrates the information about average weekly spending by families in one country in 1968 and in 2018.

Overall, Food, fuel, power, clothing, footware and personal goods accounted for the most spending in first year, while Housing, transport and leisure dominated in 2018.In contrast, household goods remained stable in both years.

In 1968, food accounted for the largest spending and recorded highest figure ,at 35% of weekly income, followed by clothing and footware at 10% and personal goods at 8% of weekly income and recorded the lowest figure.

In 2018, leisure contibuted largest percentage of expenditure at 22%, compared with housing around 18%. Transport had 14% of weekly income in spending.By contrast, household goods remained stable throughout the period at 8%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the two years and give a relevant overview, noting the shift from food to leisure, housing and transport, as well as the stability of household goods. Several figures are also reported accurately, including food at 35%, leisure at 22% and transport at 14%. However, the overview is imprecise: food was the leading category in 1968, but fuel, clothing and personal goods did not collectively account for the most spending. Some comparisons are missing or unclear, and the claim that personal goods recorded the lowest figure is inaccurate; fuel and power was lower. The response also falls short of the required 150 words, limiting the detail and development of the summary. Include the main decreases and clarify the comparisons between years.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear basic structure: an introduction, an overview and separate paragraphs for the two years. This makes the information easy to follow, and linking phrases such as “Overall,” “In contrast” and “By contrast” help signal relationships. The progression is not fully smooth, however. The overview groups several categories together without explaining their relative importance, and the 1968 paragraph moves from food to clothing and personal goods without a clear comparison with 2018. There is also a missing space after the full stop in “2018.In contrast,” and some punctuation spacing is awkward. To strengthen the organisation, group categories by whether their shares rose, fell or stayed stable, and use comparisons to connect the paragraphs.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant task vocabulary, including “accounted for,” “percentage of expenditure” and “weekly income,” and the reader can generally understand the categories and trends. However, the range is limited and some word choices or collocations are inaccurate or repetitive. “Food, fuel, power, clothing, footware and personal goods accounted for the most spending” is an unclear description of the leading categories, while “recorded the lowest figure” is wrongly applied to personal goods. There are also spelling errors in “footware” and “contibuted.” Use precise terms such as “share,” “proportion” and “expenditure,” and check category names and spelling. More varied, accurate comparisons would make the report clearer and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mixture of simple statements and some more developed structures, such as “while Housing, transport and leisure dominated in 2018” and “compared with housing around 18%.” Most sentences communicate the intended meaning, but grammatical control is uneven. Articles are missing in “in first year” and “recorded highest figure,” and the phrase “followed by clothing and footware at 10% and personal goods at 8% of weekly income and recorded the lowest figure” has an unclear structure and attachment. Punctuation is also inconsistent, with extra spaces before commas and a missing space after a full stop. Aim for shorter, complete comparisons, and check articles, sentence boundaries and punctuation when editing.

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