Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-15

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 6.5)

The given chart illustrates the weekly spending of families across eight different categories in 1968 and in 2018.

Overall, in the past, people used highest pecentage of their paycheck in food, and in the recent year that spending went to leisure activities. Whereas, least spending was done for fuel and power in both years. Interestingly, household goods' expenses was constant for both years.

Regaring the expenses on food, people used 35% of weekly income in 1968, which was the highest spending in the categories. However, in 2018, expenses on food dropped to around 17%. Moreover, people spent 22% in leisure activities, which was highest in 2018, followed by housing at approximately 19%.

For household items, the spending percentile remained similar in both the years at around 7%. The fuel and power requied least of the income accounting for under 7 % for both years. Categories such as clothing and footware, personal goods and transport individually remained below 10% of weekly expenditure.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You identify the main shift clearly: food was the largest category in 1968, while leisure led in 2018, and you note that household-goods spending was stable. The figures for food and the 2018 leaders are broadly accurate, and the overview gives a useful summary of the chart. However, the claim that fuel and power was the lowest category in both years is not accurate: personal goods was also 4% in 2018, so these categories were joint lowest. The final sentence groups clothing, personal goods and transport as all below 10%, which overlooks transport’s rise to 14% in 2018. More precise comparisons across the remaining categories would make the report more fully supported.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response is organised into a clear introduction, overview and two detail paragraphs, and the progression from the main trends to category figures is easy to follow. Linking expressions such as “However,” “Moreover” and “For” help signal relationships between points. The overview also gives the reader a useful framework before the details. Some connections could be more precise: “Whereas” begins a fragment-like continuation after the preceding sentence, and the final sentence groups several categories without clearly distinguishing their different movements, especially transport’s increase. Use cohesive links to compare changes directly—for example, contrast transport’s rise with clothing’s decline—rather than relying on broad category groupings.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “weekly income,” “categories,” “dropped,” “remained similar” and “accounting for.” These choices make the main trends understandable. However, some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, such as “used highest pecentage of their paycheck,” “spending percentile,” and “expenses was constant.” There are also spelling errors in “pecentage,” “Regaring,” “requied” and “footware.” These do not prevent understanding, but they limit precision and control. Prefer standard chart language such as “accounted for the largest share,” “proportion of income,” and “expenditure remained unchanged,” and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You attempt a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including a relative clause in “35% of weekly income in 1968, which was the highest spending” and a contrast introduced by “However.” Most of the message remains clear, but some grammatical errors are present. For example, “household goods’ expenses was constant” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “Whereas, least spending was done” is not a complete, well-formed sentence. “The fuel and power required least of the income” also has an awkward grammatical construction. Aim to make each sentence complete and check agreement and articles; for instance, write “Spending on household goods remained constant” and “Fuel and power accounted for the smallest share.”

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