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 chart illustrates how families in one region spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.

Overall, food has been a major part of expenses for families in both years.

While leisure and housing expenses surged significantly over the years.

In 1968, 35% of the expenses were only on the food that accounted for the highest share in that year. While it dropped roughly by half in 2018 at 17%.

Families speint their 10% of weekly income for housing in 1968, it increased to just below 20% by 2018. Leisure accounted for 9% of expenses in 1968, it almost trippled after 50 years at 22%.

Fuel and power was 6% in 1968 and dropped to 4% by 2018. Clothing and footware similarly dropped by half in 2018 at 5%. While household goods remained the same in both the years. Personal goods also declined to its half by 2018 at 4%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the main categories and report several accurate comparisons, including food falling from 35% to 17%, housing rising from 10% to just under 20%, and leisure increasing from 9% to 22%. However, the overview is incomplete: saying food was a major expense “in both years” overlooks that leisure, not food, was the largest category in 2018. Transport’s rise from 8% to 14% is also omitted, and the opening overview sentence fragment about leisure and housing weakens the summary. The response is 143 words, below the required 150, so it does not fully meet the task’s length requirement. Add a concise overview identifying the largest changes and include transport to make the key features more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, an overview, and paragraphs describing the figures. The categories are generally grouped sensibly, and comparisons such as food’s decline and housing’s rise are easy to follow. However, progression is weakened by sentence fragments and repeated use of “While” to begin statements, including “While leisure and housing expenses surged significantly over the years” and “While household goods remained the same.” Several figures are also joined with commas rather than clearly separated sentences, as in the housing and leisure comparisons. Use complete sentences, vary linking devices, and organise the details into clearer groups—for example, increases, decreases, and unchanged spending—to create a more consistent flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a suitable range of task-related vocabulary, including “accounted for,” “share,” “surged,” “declined,” and “remained the same.” These choices help communicate the main movements and show some flexibility beyond basic descriptions. Some wording is inaccurate or awkward, however: “expenses were only on the food” is unclear, and “trippled after 50 years” is an imprecise way to describe the increase. There are also spelling errors in “speint,” “trippled,” and “footware.” Aim for precise collocations such as “families spent” and “the proportion allocated to,” and check spelling carefully. More accurate phrasing would make the comparisons sound more natural and formal.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex forms, and the time references generally distinguish the two years clearly. However, some sentence structures are incomplete or joined incorrectly. “While leisure and housing expenses surged significantly over the years” is a dependent clause without a main clause, and “Families speint their 10% of weekly income for housing in 1968, it increased…” joins two independent clauses with only a comma. The same comma-splice pattern appears in the leisure comparison. There are also agreement and article issues, such as “Fuel and power was” and “in both the years.” Use complete clauses, separate independent sentences with a full stop or semicolon, and check subject–verb agreement and article use.

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

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