Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · 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 6.5)

The given bar chart provides data that reflects the spending of weekly salaries by different families in a single country between 1968 and 2018, over the period of 50 years, measuring in percentages.

Overall, it can be seen that, in the year 1968 most of the money were used on food, house and garments respectively whereas in 2018, leisure costed the highest. Following that, housing and food were the other two sources which required the second and third largest amounts.

In the year 1968, Food was the most expensive feature that needed 35% of a family's weekly income. However, by 2018, the figure had dropped to around 17% resulting it to the third highest trend. Similarly, Fuel and power, Clothing and footwear & personal goods were the three sectors which costed approximately 6%, 10% and 9% of weekly renumerations in the previous year but each of those were also decreased to about 5%. In contrast, leisure, transport and housing used to be cheaper before while those rose by roughly 5% to 15% resulting the figures becoming 22%, 14% and 19% from 9%, 8% and 10% of income.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response identifies the main contrast accurately: food was the largest category in 1968, while leisure led in 2018, and it reports several important rises and falls. The overview also notes housing and food as the next-largest 2018 categories. Most figures are broadly consistent with the chart, including food at 35% and 17%, and leisure, transport and housing at 22%, 14% and 19% in 2018. However, the comparison of the smaller categories is less precise: household goods stayed at 8%, but it is omitted from the detailed account, and the stated 1968 personal-goods figure of 9% differs from the chart’s 8%. Also, saying the three rising categories increased by roughly 5% oversimplifies their different changes. More exact comparisons would strengthen the report.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response is organised into an introduction, a clear overview and a detail paragraph, with a logical movement from the broad pattern to specific figures. Linking expressions such as “Overall,” “However,” “Similarly” and “In contrast” help signal comparisons, and the reader can follow the main changes. Some connections are less clear because several categories and figures are compressed into one long sentence, particularly the final sentence, where the increases are grouped together despite differing amounts. The phrase “resulting it to the third highest trend” also makes the relationship between the fall in food spending and its new ranking awkward to follow. Separate the category comparisons and use clearer references to the figures to make progression more precise.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

There is an adequate range of vocabulary for describing the chart, including “dropped,” “rose,” “highest” and “weekly income.” The writer also attempts more formal expressions such as “reflects” and “respectively,” but some choices are inaccurate or unnatural for this task. “Weekly salaries” is less suitable than “weekly income,” while “costed” and “renumerations” are not appropriate in these contexts. “House and garments” is imprecise for the chart’s categories of housing and clothing, and “feature” does not clearly describe a spending category. These choices do not prevent understanding, but they reduce precision and naturalness. Prefer standard chart language such as “accounted for,” “expenditure,” “category” and “share of income,” and check spelling and collocation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response uses a mix of simple and more complex structures, including a contrast clause beginning “However” and a relative clause in “which costed approximately…”. Meaning is generally clear, but some grammatical errors remain. In “most of the money were used,” the subject requires a singular verb (“was”), and “resulting it to the third highest trend” has an incorrect construction. The sentence beginning “Similarly” also has a long, difficult structure, with “but each of those were” showing a mismatch between “each” and the verb. The final sentence would be clearer if divided into shorter comparisons. Continue using complex sentences, but check subject–verb agreement, clause structure and punctuation before finishing.

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.