Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The given chart illustrates the information of how families living in one country spent their weekly expenditures in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, the chart clearly depicts that people spent most of their weekly money on food and lesiure in both the years. On the other hand, fuel and power remained the least to be spent money on in the given years.

Peers spent 35% of their income on food in 1968 which then declined to only more than 15% in 2018. Housing experienced a surge from 10% in 1968 to nealry 20% in 2018. Fuel and power and personal goods had less money spent on them which is less than 10% in both years. Furthermore, the percentage of spending money on household goods remained same in 1968 and 2018 which is less than 10%.

The rate towards clothing and footware decreased to 5% in 2018 from 10% in 1968. People spent more on transport in 2018 than in 1968 which is near to 15%.

The trend towards leisure increased from nearly 10% to 22% in 2018.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main contrast between the years: food spending fell substantially, while housing, transport and leisure rose, and you include several relevant figures. The overview also notes that leisure became a major category. However, it is not fully accurate to say families spent most on food and leisure in both years: food was clearly highest in 1968, whereas leisure was highest in 2018. The claim that fuel and power was the lowest in both years is also inaccurate, since personal goods was lower in 2018. Some details are vague, such as “less than 10%,” and the change in personal goods is not reported precisely. Make the overview more exact and compare the key shifts directly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, moving from an introduction and overview to details about the categories, and the comparisons are generally easy to follow. Paragraphing helps separate the overview from the data. However, progression within the detail section is somewhat list-like: categories are added one after another without a clear grouping of increases and decreases. Connectors such as “Furthermore” and “On the other hand” are used, but do not always clarify the relationship between the information. For example, fuel and personal goods could be grouped as categories that declined, while housing, transport and leisure could be grouped as increases. Use clearer referencing and a more deliberate sequence to make the comparisons flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant chart vocabulary, including “declined,” “surge,” “remained,” and “increased,” and the reader can understand the main comparisons. However, several choices are unnatural or imprecise for describing a chart: “information of how,” “weekly expenditures,” “least to be spent money on,” and “the rate towards leisure” do not express the data naturally. There are also spelling errors in “lesiure,” “nealry,” and “footware.” Prefer standard collocations such as “share of weekly income,” “accounted for,” and “spending on leisure.” More precise vocabulary would also help distinguish a category’s share from the amount of money spent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and more complex sentences, including relative clauses (“which then declined”) and comparisons using “from … to …”. Most sentences communicate the intended trend, but some grammatical patterns are awkward or incomplete. For example, “Fuel and power and personal goods had less money spent on them” uses an unclear passive construction, while “which is less than 10%” does not agree clearly with the plural categories and shifts tense. The opening phrase “The given chart illustrates the information of how…” is also structurally cumbersome. Use direct sentence patterns such as “Spending on fuel and power fell…” and maintain past tense consistently when reporting the two years. These revisions would improve control while retaining sentence variety.

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