Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · 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 4.0)

The bar chart illustrates the infornation about one country spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.

The first category is food, in 1968,spent on 5% of wages are spent on food, whereas in 2018, 18% of income is spent on food, whereas in 2018, 18% of wages were spent on meals. The next category is housing , in 1968, the monthly wages spent on housing is 10%, whereas in 2018,the ratio is 18%, The third category is fuel and power, in 1986, 7% of income was spent on fuel and power, whereas 4% of income was spent on the fuel and power.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 2.5

The response identifies the chart’s topic and attempts comparisons for food, housing, and fuel and power, but it covers only three of the eight categories and gives no overall summary of the main changes. Several figures are substantially misreported: food was about 35% in 1968 and 17% in 2018, not 5% and 18%; housing was about 10% and 19%, close to the figures given; fuel and power was about 6% and 4%, and the first year is mistakenly written as 1986. The response is also below the required 150 words, with 93 words counted after excluding 11 copied prompt words. To improve, include an overview, report the largest shifts, and cover the remaining categories using accurate comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 3.5

There is a basic sequence through three chart categories, and phrases such as “The next category” and “The third category” help signal the order. However, the response is a single paragraph with no clear overview or grouping of the information, so the reader does not get a coherent account of the chart as a whole. Linking is also repetitive: “whereas” is used several times, including twice in the food sentence, where the same 2018 figure is repeated. Organise the response into an introduction, an overview, and one or two detail paragraphs. Use comparisons to connect related figures rather than repeating the same transition, and ensure each sentence adds a distinct piece of information.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The response uses a small set of relevant terms, including “category,” “income,” “spent,” and “ratio,” and the reader can generally recognise which spending areas are being discussed. However, vocabulary is repetitive, especially the repeated forms of “spent” and “whereas,” and some choices are imprecise for describing a chart: “monthly wages” conflicts with the weekly-income measure, while “meals” is less precise than “food.” There are also spelling errors, including “infornation,” and the chart label “footware” is misspelled in the response’s likely intended wording. Build a more varied set of accurate reporting verbs and nouns, and check spelling and collocations before submitting.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts to use comparative clauses, particularly with “whereas,” and some basic sentence patterns are understandable. However, control is inconsistent in longer sentences. In “in 1968,spent on 5% of wages are spent on food,” the sentence has an unclear subject and faulty verb construction; the food sentence then repeats the 2018 clause. Punctuation and spacing are also unreliable, as in “1968,spent” and “2018,the ratio.” The response relies mainly on repeated simple patterns rather than showing a controlled range of structures. Practise forming clear subject–verb sentences, for example, “Families spent 35% of their income on food in 1968, compared with 17% in 2018,” and proofread punctuation and tense consistency.

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

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