Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-21

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 4.5)

In the given graph the weekly spent of the people in the 1968 and 2018 is quite different.If we take the expenses of the people per week on different things it could be as:

items : spending(1968) : spending(2018)

Food : 35% :12%

Housing: 10% :18-19%

Fuel and power: 8% :4%

Clothing and footware: 10% :5%

Household goods: 8% :8%

personal goods: 8% :4%

Transport: 8% :8%

Lesuire: 8% : 9%

Comparisons:

In the light of the above given informations it is clear that the spending of the people is different in 1968 and 2018,

It is gainded from the above data that people in 1968 used most of their income on their food and meal,their expenses over the Housing and clothing and footware were normal but their expenses over the personal fuel power were very low.

On the other hand the expenses of the people in 2018 was almost on their Housing , leisure and transport. While thier

expenses over the personal goods and the fuel and power and clothing is very low.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the main contrast that food dominated spending in 1968, while housing and leisure were more prominent in 2018. However, the response only partially reports the chart accurately: food in 2018 is given as 12% rather than about 17%, fuel and power in 1968 as 8% rather than about 6%, and transport and leisure in 2018 are understated at 8% and 9% rather than about 14% and 22%. The overview is also limited: it does not clearly highlight the sharp fall in food spending and the rise in leisure and transport. To strengthen the report, select the largest changes and give accurate comparisons, rather than listing figures without explaining their significance.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The table-like list gives the reader a basic way to locate the categories and figures, and the later “Comparisons” section attempts to summarise them. However, the response does not develop a clear progression from an overview to grouped details. The heading and colon-separated entries interrupt the flow, while the final paragraph repeats that spending differed without adding a well-organised comparison. Linking phrases such as “On the other hand” are used, but connections between individual points remain unclear. Organise the response into a short introduction and overview, followed by paragraphs comparing the main changes; use clear references to the categories so the reader can follow each comparison.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “weekly,” “expenses,” “income,” and category names such as “Housing” and “Transport,” so the subject is generally recognisable. However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate, which sometimes makes the meaning difficult to follow. For example, “weekly spent” and “expenses over the personal fuel power” are not natural ways to describe the chart, and “normal” is vague when describing spending levels. There are also spelling errors such as “Lesuire” and “footware.” Use precise reporting language such as “accounted for,” “share of weekly income,” and “rose/fell,” and check spelling of chart labels.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts both simple statements and longer sentences, for example, “On the other hand the expenses of the people in 2018 was almost on their Housing, leisure and transport.” However, sentence structures are limited, and errors in agreement, articles, and sentence boundaries occur frequently enough to affect clarity. Examples include “the expenses … was,” “the spending of the people … is different,” and the run-on opening, “quite different.If we take…”. Capitalisation and punctuation are also inconsistent. Practise forming accurate comparison sentences with a clear subject and verb, such as “Spending on housing rose, whereas spending on food fell,” and separate ideas with full stops and appropriate commas.

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

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