Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-17

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 7.0)

The bar chart compares the percentage of weekly income that families in one country spent on eight different categories in 1968 and 2018.

overall, family spending patterns changed considerably over the 50- years period. Food was far the largest expense in 1968, whereas leisure became the biggest spending category in 2018. Spending on housing and transport increased, while the proportion allocated to the food, clothing a d footwear, fule and power, and personal goods declined.

In 1968, families spent 35% of their the weekly income on foods, compared with approximately 17% in 2018. Housing expenditure rose from 10% to around 19% over the same period. Similarly, the proportion spent on transport increased from about 8% to 14%, while leisure spending more than doubled, climbing from roughly 9% to 22%.

By contrast, expenditure on clothing and footwear fell from 10% in 1968to 5% in 2018. Spending fule and power also decreased , from around 6% to 4%. personal goods followed the same downward trend, doping from approximately 8% to 4%. Meanwhile, the proportion spent on household goods remained relatively stable at about 8%.

In conclusion, families shifted a greater share of their weekly income towards leisure housing and transport, while food became a considerably less dominant expense.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 8.0

The response covers the chart’s main features accurately and gives a clear overview: food was the largest category in 1968, while leisure led in 2018. It also reports the key rises in housing, transport and leisure, the declines in food, clothing and footwear, fuel and power, and personal goods, and the stability of household goods. The figures cited align with the chart, including food at 35% and 17%, and leisure at 9% and 22%. This is a well-developed summary with relevant comparisons and no significant omissions. To make the account even more precise, avoid the broad concluding phrase “families shifted a greater share” without specifying that food remained a substantial category in 2018, despite its decline.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The information is organised effectively: an introduction is followed by an overview, then paragraphs comparing categories that rose and fell, with a brief concluding summary. This creates a clear progression and makes the main contrasts easy to follow. Linking expressions such as “Similarly,” “By contrast,” and “Meanwhile” help connect the comparisons, and the grouping of related trends is appropriate. Some cohesion is slightly repetitive, as the final “In conclusion” restates the overview rather than adding a distinct point. The overview sentence also packs several declining categories into a list, which is less smooth. More concise grouping and a conclusion that does not repeat the overview would make the progression more polished.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

There is an adequate range of task-appropriate vocabulary, including “proportion,” “allocated,” “expenditure,” “declined,” and “remained relatively stable.” These choices help describe changes and comparisons clearly. However, several spelling and word-choice slips reduce precision: “fule” appears twice, “doping” is used instead of “dropping,” and “foods” is less natural than “food” for this category. The phrase “far the largest expense” is also awkward; “by far the largest expense” is the natural form. These errors do not prevent understanding, but they show that less common or more formal wording is not yet consistently controlled. Proofreading and choosing standard collocations would strengthen the vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response uses a mix of simple and more complex structures, including comparisons with “whereas,” “while,” and “compared with,” and most relationships between figures are understandable. Some grammatical errors remain. For example, “35% of their the weekly income” contains an unnecessary article, and “1968to 5%” lacks spacing and punctuation. The overview begins with lowercase “overall,” while “personal goods” begins a sentence without a capital letter; there is also an extra space before the comma in “decreased ,”. The phrase “over the 50- years period” has an incorrect article and hyphenation. These are generally minor and do not obscure meaning, but careful editing of articles, sentence openings and punctuation is needed for more consistent accuracy.

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