Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-11

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 diagram below shows proportion about how families in one country spent their weekly incomes in the year 1986 and in 2018.

Overall, the diagram compares proportion on different activities.With people spending the highest amounts on food and leisure in the year 1968 and 2018 respectively. Housing and transport coming second and third .

In the year 1968, families spend the majority of their weekly income on groceries at 35%.Whereas, for other activities household, personal goods, transport and leisure they spent about 8% of their money.With housing coming in second, cloth and footware third and fuel and power last with 10% for the second and third and about 7% for the last .

In the year 2018, families spent most of their income on leisure activities with housing,food and transport followed along the way with about 23,18,17and 14% of the money respectively.While on the other hand, fuel,clothing, household and personal goods depleted to their 1968 counter-part.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the main shift from food being the largest category in 1968 to leisure in 2018, and you include several relevant figures, such as food at 35% and leisure at about 23%. However, the overview is unclear and partly inaccurate: housing and transport did not come second and third in 1968, and in 2018 housing was second, followed by food and transport. Some details are also imprecise: clothing and footwear was 10% in 1968, tied with housing, rather than clearly third; fuel and power was about 6%, not 7%. The final comparison says several categories “depleted” without reporting their actual changes. The response is also two words below the 150-word minimum; the nine words copied from the prompt are excluded from the count. Develop a clearer overview and report the key rises and falls accurately.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an opening, an overview, and separate paragraphs for the two years. This helps the reader follow the broad comparison. However, progression is weakened by an unclear overview and by details that are not consistently grouped or compared. For example, “Housing and transport coming second and third” is not clearly tied to a year, while the 1968 paragraph lists several categories together and then returns to rankings. Linking phrases such as “Whereas” and “While on the other hand” are used in sentence fragments or awkwardly, so they do not reliably show the relationship between ideas. Organise the body around the most important comparisons, and use complete sentences with clear references to each year.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “proportion,” “majority,” “respectively,” and “counter-part,” and the reader can generally understand the categories being discussed. However, the range is limited and several choices are inaccurate or unnatural. “Proportion about” and “proportion on” do not express the chart’s measure naturally; “groceries” is less precise than “food”; and “depleted to their 1968 counter-part” is an unclear way to describe decreases. There are also spelling and form issues in “footware” and “counter-part.” Use standard chart language such as “share of weekly income,” “accounted for,” “rose,” and “fell,” and check spelling of category labels.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts some longer structures, including comparisons introduced by “Whereas” and “While,” but these are often incomplete or poorly controlled. For example, “With people spending the highest amounts…” and “Housing and transport coming second and third” are fragments rather than complete sentences. There are frequent problems with verb forms and sentence construction, as in “families spend” when describing 1968 and “with about 23,18,17and 14% … respectively,” where punctuation and spacing make the structure difficult to read. The overview also runs two sentences together after “activities.” Use a consistent past tense for both years, form complete clauses, and punctuate figures and comparisons clearly. These changes would make the information easier to interpret.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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