Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-13

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 campers the spending of income by families in one nation onto the different basic living requirements such as food, housing, fuel and power, clothing and footwear, household goods, personal goods, transport and leisure in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, in 1968, most of the money spend on food, while least money spend on fuel and electricity. people were more like to lay out on leisure in 2018.

35% of income spend on food which is the highest percentage of expenses in 1968. Housing and clothing and footwear occupied 40% of weekly money. The least money paid on fuel and electricity which was 7% of the total money. Furthermore, 8% money had on household goods, personal goods, and accommodation.

in 2018, accumulation of cash on food decreased from 35% to 17%; however, money used by families on leisure increased by more than three times from 7% to 23%. In addition, spend on transportation and clothing and footwear also rose by double. Furthermore, the percentage of cash remained same as 1968 for household hoods.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the main shift away from food and towards leisure, and include several relevant figures, such as food falling from 35% to 17%. However, the overview is incomplete: it does not clearly summarise the major changes across the categories, and the claim that leisure spending rose “by more than three times” is inaccurate (it increased from about 9% to 22%). Some comparisons are also misreported or unclear. Housing and clothing together were 20% in 1968, not 40%; transport rose from 8% to 14%, which is not a doubling; and household goods stayed at 8%, while the final sentence calls this “household hoods.” Select the largest rises and falls, report them accurately, and distinguish categories carefully to make the response more complete and reliable.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for the two years. This helps the reader follow the general comparison, and linking expressions such as “Overall,” “however,” and “Furthermore” show an attempt to connect ideas. However, progression within the detail paragraphs is uneven: the 1968 paragraph combines housing and clothing without explaining their individual figures, then introduces household and personal goods in a confusing sentence. The final paragraph also moves between decreases, increases, and unchanged spending without a clear comparison pattern. Some connectors are repetitive or do not clarify the relationship between points. Grouping the categories into clear rises, falls, and stable figures, with one comparison per sentence, would make the organisation more coherent.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “weekly,” “percentage,” “income,” and category names, and you attempt more varied expressions such as “occupied” and “accumulation.” However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural for describing a chart, which sometimes makes the meaning difficult to follow. “The bar chart campers” appears to be a mistaken word, while “accumulation of cash on food” and “money had on household goods” are not natural collocations. There are also spelling or form errors, including “household hoods” and “footware.” Prefer precise, familiar reporting language such as “accounted for,” “spending on,” “rose,” and “remained unchanged.” Accurate category labels and natural collocations would improve clarity more than using unusual wording.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a contrast with “however” and a comparison using “from … to …”. Nevertheless, errors occur frequently in basic sentence structures and verb forms, and some sentences are difficult to interpret. For example, “most of the money spend on food” needs a passive form (“was spent”), while “35% of income spend on food” is missing both an article and a correctly formed verb. The sentence beginning “Housing and clothing and footwear occupied 40%” also lacks a clear grammatical relationship to the figures. Capitalisation at the start of sentences is inconsistent, as in “people” and “in 2018.” Practise complete subject–verb structures and check tense, articles, and sentence boundaries before submitting.

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