Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

The bar chart illustrates how families of a single country used to spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.

Overall, the chart depicts how families used to spent their weekly income over 6 different things from food to personal items. It also shows people had more to spent in 1968 than in 2018.

In 1968, families used to spent most of their weekly income on food. These spending reached almost half in 2018. Most of the spending of families goes into housing in 2018 which is almost the double of what families used to pay in 1968. Families did not used to spent alot on fuel and power back in 1968 as it was the category where they used to spent the least but it was still more than what families pay in 2018.

Families also used to spent more on clothing and footware and also on personal goods, spending on these things reduced by half in 2018. However, spending on houselhold items stays the same.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the chart’s subject and make some relevant comparisons, including the fall in clothing and personal-goods spending and the unchanged figure for household goods. However, the overview is unclear and includes an unsupported claim that families “had more to spent in 1968 than in 2018”; the chart shows proportions of weekly income, not how much income families had. There are also important inaccuracies: food spending fell from 35% to 17%, rather than reaching almost half in 2018, and housing rose from 10% to 19%, which is close to double. Transport and leisure, including leisure’s rise to the largest share in 2018, are omitted. Select the main rises and falls and report the figures accurately to make the summary more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a basic paragraph structure, with an introduction, an overview and a body paragraph, and words such as “Overall” and “However” help signal relationships. Nevertheless, the progression is limited: the overview repeats the idea of what families spent on without clearly summarising the main changes, and the body moves between categories without a consistent comparison pattern. Some references are also unclear, such as “These spending” and “it” in the discussion of fuel and power. Grouping the categories by trend—for example, decreases, increases and unchanged spending—and comparing 1968 with 2018 within each group would make the information easier to follow. Use linking phrases selectively rather than repeating the same sentence pattern.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “weekly income,” “housing,” “fuel and power” and “personal goods,” so the reader can generally understand the categories being discussed. However, the range is limited and several phrases are repeated, especially “used to spent” and “families.” Some word choices are inaccurate or imprecise: “used to” suggests a past habit rather than describing chart data, while “These spending reached almost half” does not clearly express the change in food expenditure. There are also spelling errors in “footware” and “houselhold,” and “alot” should be written as two words. Use precise reporting verbs such as “accounted for,” “rose” and “fell,” and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a range of sentence forms, including comparisons and a subordinate clause in “as it was the category where…,” but grammatical errors are frequent and sometimes make the intended meaning difficult to follow. The repeated form “used to spent” is incorrect; use “spent” for past data or “used to spend” for a past habit. Other examples include “families did not used to spent,” where the verb form after “did not” is wrong, and “These spending reached,” which has faulty agreement. Tense control also shifts between past and present, as in “families used to” and “spending … stays the same.” Practise accurate past-tense reporting and subject–verb agreement, then proofread each sentence for verb forms.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.