Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-22

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 5.0)

The bar chart illustrates weekly expenditure of families in country side between 1968 and 2018.

Overall, households spent the largest proportion of their income on food in 1968. By 2018, leisure had become the largest expenditure category for households. Personal goods and fuel and power accounted for the smallest proportions of household spending.

Firstly, in the year 1968 weekly household spending their highest share was on food which is about 35% and housing and clothing and footware was the

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You identify the chart’s broad change accurately: food was the largest category in 1968, while leisure was largest in 2018. However, the response stops partway through a sentence (“housing and clothing and footware was the”), so it gives almost no supporting comparison and does not report the 2018 figures or most other categories. The statement that personal goods and fuel and power were the smallest proportions is only partly accurate: in 2018 they were joint lowest, but in 1968 fuel and power was lowest while personal goods was higher. The response is also substantially below the required 150 words. Develop a complete overview and select several key rises, falls, and stable figures to report.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is a basic structure: an opening sentence, an overview beginning “Overall,” and an attempt to start a detail paragraph with “Firstly.” This gives the reader some sense of the intended organisation. However, the response ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence, leaving the detail paragraph incomplete and preventing a clear progression through the data. “Firstly” also promises further points that never appear. Use separate, complete paragraphs for the overview and comparisons, and connect the figures by meaningful contrasts—for example, food’s decline alongside the rise in leisure and housing. This would make the organisation more complete and the relationships between categories easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses some relevant task vocabulary, including “bar chart,” “weekly expenditure,” “proportion,” and “category,” and these choices make the topic clear. However, the range is limited because the response is very short, and some phrasing is imprecise or awkward: “in country side” is not a natural way to describe the setting, while “weekly household spending their highest share” does not express the comparison clearly. The chart label is “clothing and footwear,” not “footware.” Aim for accurate collocations and use a wider range of comparison language, such as “accounted for,” “rose to,” “fell to,” and “remained unchanged,” where supported by the data.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both a simple opening sentence and a more developed overview, and the sentence “By 2018, leisure had become the largest expenditure category” is grammatically clear. However, the range shown is limited, and the final sentence is incomplete: “housing and clothing and footware was the” has no finished comparison or main clause. In “in the year 1968 weekly household spending their highest share was on food,” the word order is faulty, making the relationship between spending and its share difficult to follow. Use a clear subject and verb, such as “In 1968, families spent the largest share of their income on food.” Check that every sentence is complete and that clauses are punctuated clearly.

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