Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-24

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 bar chart compares the proportion of average weekly income that household in a specific country spent across eight different categories in the years 1968 and 2018.

Overall, spending piriorities are significant shift over the 50-year period. While food accounted for by far the highest percentage of amount in 1968, leisure and housing became the main spending areas by 2018. In contrast, spending on most demand items saw noticeable decreases, whereas part toward household goods remained completely unchanged.

First of all, food dropping from approximately 35% in 1968 to around 17% in 2018. Furthermore, clothing and footwear experienced a sharp fall, dropping from about 10% in 1968 and down to 5% in 2018.

Secondly, fuel and power and personal goods both categories are experienced low decreases, falling from around 6% to 8% in 1968 and both are same in 2018 at 4%.

Lastly, lesiure saw the largest growth 22% in 2018 and low level 9% in 1968. Transport increasing steadily from roughly 8% to nearly 14%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You provide a relevant overview, identifying food as the dominant category in 1968 and leisure and housing as leading areas in 2018. Several comparisons are accurate, including food falling from about 35% to 17%, clothing from 10% to 5%, and transport rising from 8% to 14%. However, some key information is missing: housing’s substantial rise from 10% to 19% is mentioned only in the overview, and household goods’ unchanged 8% is not supported with figures. There is also a factual mix-up in the fuel and personal goods sentence: fuel fell from 6% to 4%, while personal goods fell from 8% to 4%; they did not both start at 6–8% in the way stated. Develop these comparisons more precisely.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, an overview, and paragraphs describing decreases and increases. Sequencing phrases such as “First of all,” “Secondly,” and “Lastly” help signal the order of information. However, the grouping is not always logical: the paragraph beginning “Secondly” combines fuel and personal goods but gives their starting values unclearly, while housing—the other major change—is not developed in the detail paragraphs. Some linking is mechanical, and the final paragraph ends without a concluding synthesis. Grouping the categories by clear trends and using precise references to each category would make the progression easier to follow and cohesion less dependent on formulaic transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “proportion,” “accounted for,” “sharp fall,” and “largest growth,” and the reader can generally understand the comparisons. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, such as “spending piriorities are significant shift,” “most demand items,” and “part toward household goods.” There are also spelling errors in “piriorities” and “lesiure,” and the chart label is “footwear,” not “footware.” These slips reduce precision, particularly when describing trends. Aim for natural, accurate phrases such as “spending priorities shifted significantly,” “most categories,” and “the share allocated to household goods.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast in “While food accounted for…,” and most of the intended meaning remains understandable. However, some sentences contain grammatical errors that make the relationships between figures less clear. For example, “spending priorities are significant shift” has an incorrect verb construction, and “food dropping from approximately 35%” is a fragment rather than a complete sentence. In “fuel and power and personal goods both categories are experienced,” the subject and verb structure is faulty. Work on complete clauses, consistent past-tense reporting, and agreement—for example, “Food fell…” and “Fuel and power and personal goods both decreased…”—while retaining varied sentence structures.

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