Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · 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 4.5)

The chart illustrates that average weekly spending by families increased in food, housing and leisure between 1968 and 2018. Overall families spent the largest income in food, leisure; however, the percentage for the food and leisure fell over the period in 1968. While there was a percentage growth in food. The spending in fuel and power, clothing and fotware, household goods, personal goods, transport fluchated between 1968 and 2018. In 1968,families spending on clothing and footware rose by over just 5%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.5

You identify the chart’s topic and attempt an overview, but the main trends are not reported accurately or clearly. The opening says spending “increased in food, housing and leisure,” whereas food fell from about 35% to 17%; housing and leisure did rise. The overview then contradicts itself by saying food and leisure “fell,” and the claim that food had “a percentage growth” is also incorrect. The statement about clothing rising by over 5% is unclear and does not match the chart’s fall from 10% to 5%. Several categories are merely listed, with no reliable comparisons. The response is also well below the required 150 words, leaving the task only minimally addressed. Select the largest changes and report them accurately.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: you introduce the chart, use “Overall” to signal a summary, and then refer to individual spending categories. However, the ideas do not progress clearly because the overview contains conflicting claims: food is first said to increase, then to fall, and later to show growth. The sentence beginning “While there was a percentage growth…” is a fragment, and the list of categories followed by “fluctuated” does not explain how they changed. The response also has no clear separation between an overview and supporting details. Use a short introduction, a consistent overview, and one or two comparison-focused detail sentences, with linking words that show contrast accurately.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is sufficient to identify the subject and several chart categories, including “average weekly spending,” “percentage,” and “fuel and power.” You also attempt trend language such as “increased,” “growth,” and “fluctuated.” However, some choices are inaccurate or imprecise: “fluctuated” suggests repeated changes, while the chart compares only two years, and “rose by over just 5%” does not clearly describe the clothing figures. “Spent the largest income” is an unnatural collocation; “allocated the largest share of their income” would be clearer. Spelling errors in “fotware” and “footware” also reduce accuracy. Build a small set of precise verbs for rises and falls, and use them with the correct categories and values.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast with “however” and a clause beginning “While.” Some basic meaning is understandable, but control is uneven. “While there was a percentage growth in food” is an incomplete dependent clause, and the opening sentence’s list and later overview do not form a consistent grammatical account. In “Overall families spent the largest income in food, leisure,” the phrasing and punctuation make the relationship between the categories unclear. There are also missing spaces after commas, as in “1968,families,” and the final sentence has an awkward structure that obscures the comparison. Practise complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, and check punctuation and clause connections before finishing.

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