Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-16

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)

In this graph,infornation about average weekly spending by families is given in two different times.In the 1968,people were interested to spend on food and concious about their health but now in the present, like in 2018, people prefer to spend more on luxury and residence as copmare to health.Overall the things on which people show more interest in the 2018 are housing, transport and leisure.On the other hand people loss their interest and spend less weekly income in personal goods clothing and footware, food and fuel and power.However, household goods are the only which do not show any changes in theboth times.One thing that is very interesting in both times is that people spend less than 10% of their weekly income on fuel and power, household goods, personal goods and cothing and footware.Two things on which people show a significant change in both times are housing and leisure where on leisure people spend almost double of their weekly income.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the broad contrast between 1968 and 2018, noting that food was a major expense earlier and that housing, transport and leisure took larger shares in 2018. You also correctly observe that household-goods spending was unchanged and that fuel and power remained below 10%. However, the overview is not consistently accurate: leisure rose from 9% to 22%, which is more than double, while housing rose from 10% to 19%; the claim that people spent less on clothing and footwear is correct, but the list of categories below 10% in both years is not, since clothing was 10% in 1968. The response also gives few precise figures and interprets spending as evidence of health or luxury preferences. Select the key changes and report them objectively with accurate comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: it introduces the chart, gives a broad summary, and then mentions unchanged and changing categories. Linking expressions such as “Overall,” “On the other hand,” and “However” help signal relationships between points. Nevertheless, the ideas are crowded into one continuous paragraph, so the reader cannot easily distinguish an overview from supporting comparisons. Some links are also awkward or unclear, particularly “One thing that is very interesting” and “Two things on which people show a significant change.” The sequence moves between general trends and a list of smaller categories without a clear organising principle. Use separate paragraphs for the overview and details, and group categories by rising, falling, or stable spending.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant chart vocabulary, including “weekly income,” “spend,” “significant change,” and “do not show any changes,” so the main topic is generally understandable. However, the range is limited and several choices are inaccurate or unnatural for an objective report. Phrases such as “people were interested to spend,” “show more interest,” and “people loss their interest” describe preferences rather than simply reporting expenditure. There are also noticeable spelling errors, including “infornation,” “concious,” “copmare,” and “cothing,” which reduce precision. Aim for neutral terms such as “accounted for,” “rose,” “fell,” and “remained stable,” and check spelling carefully. This would make the comparisons clearer and more appropriate to Academic Task 1.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt some longer sentences and use basic contrast structures, for example, “On the other hand…” and “However…”. However, control is inconsistent, and several sentence patterns are faulty or difficult to follow. The opening has a missing space after the comma and an awkward time construction: “In the 1968” and “in two different times.” In “people loss their interest and spend less,” the verb form is incorrect, while “household goods are the only which do not show any changes” lacks a clear grammatical construction. Commas and sentence boundaries are also unreliable, especially where several ideas run together. Practise accurate past-tense reporting and simpler comparative sentences before adding more complex clauses.

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