Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-20

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 6.0)

The given bar chart shows a comparison of weekly wages, spend in various ways by famlies between 1968 and 2018.

Overall, in 1968, mostly expenses were done to buy the food, followed by clothing and housing. While rest of the needful things such as Fuel, house products, personal stuffs, transport and leisure had a considerable spendings with many similarity. In 2018, leisure activities becomes first, where people spent their salaries, and least spend on fuel, personal goods and clothing.

In 1968, food was the main source to use the money ( 35%). Housing, clothing and footware shared the same amount of percentages (10%). However, Household and personal goods showed same amount of numbers (7%). Clothing and footware, transport respectively had around 10% and less than 10%. Leisure spendings were also just less than 10%.

In 2018, food expenses decreased, around 15%, and leisure had significant increase of above 20%. While housing was also risen up to 15%. Moreover, fuel and personal goods were also declined less than 5%. Clothing and footware shown negative path of 5%. whereas household remain unchanged

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You identify the main contrast accurately: food dominates in 1968, while leisure is the largest category in 2018, and you note that household goods remain stable. These are relevant overview features, and the response covers both years. Some details, however, are imprecise or inconsistent with the chart: housing rises to about 19%, not 15%; food falls to about 17%, rather than around 15%; and clothing and footwear is about 10% in 1968, not shared equally with housing if the chart is read closely. The 1968 overview also groups several categories as similar despite their differing values. To strengthen the report, select the clearest comparisons and give accurate approximate figures consistently, including the substantial rise in transport from 8% to 14%.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for each year. This makes the comparison easy to follow, and linking expressions such as “Overall,” “However,” and “Moreover” help signal relationships. The progression is not fully controlled, though. In the 1968 paragraph, clothing and footwear is mentioned twice, and the sentence beginning “Clothing and footware, transport respectively” is difficult to interpret. Some transitions also create incomplete or awkward links, such as “While housing was also risen up to 15%.” For a stronger progression, group categories by their changes—major decreases, increases, and stable spending—and avoid repeating information already reported.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “comparison,” “decreased,” “significant increase,” and “unchanged,” so the reader can understand the broad trends. However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are noticeably inaccurate, sometimes making the meaning unclear. For example, “weekly wages, spend in various ways” does not naturally describe the chart, while “main source to use the money” is an imprecise way to identify the largest spending category. Phrases such as “personal stuffs,” “negative path,” and “considerable spendings” are also unsuitable in this context. Use standard chart-reporting language and precise category terms, such as “accounted for,” “expenditure,” and “share of weekly income.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple statements and longer sentences, including comparisons between the two years. However, control is inconsistent, and errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction occur across the response. Examples include “leisure activities becomes first,” “housing was also risen,” and “household remain unchanged.” The sentence “While rest of the needful things…” is also not a complete, well-formed clause, and the final paragraph contains a fragment beginning “whereas household.” These problems sometimes make relationships between ideas harder to follow. Practise forming complete sentences with accurate past-tense verbs for the chart, and check subject–verb agreement and clause structure before submitting.

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