Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-31

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 bar graph shows the percentage of how weekly income is spent by families in a country in 1968 and 2018.

Overall, in 1968, 35% of the families budget goes to food, whereas the least allocation for money goes to fuel and power at over 5%. However, in 2018, most of their budget goes to leisure which is over 20 percent, and least priority for budget are fuel and power and personal goods at less than 5%.

Families in 1968 gives more priority for food which is on top of the list for their weekly budget at 35%. Second are housing, clothing, and footware at 10%. Third in the list is leisure which is less than 10%. Fourth, are 3 essentials with equal budget allocation of 8% are household goods, personal goods, and transport. Least money allocated is the fuel and power at only over 5%.

While in 2018, their priorities have changed. They allocate more for leisure which is over 20% of their weekly budget. Next in their list is housing at approximately 19%. Third is their food budget which is just around 18%. The rest are tranportation, household goods, clothing and footware, personal goods, and fuel and power with approximately 19%, around 8%, 5%, and less than 5%, respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You provide a clear overview of the main shift: food takes the largest share in 1968, while leisure leads in 2018, and you identify fuel and power as the smallest category in 1968. Most comparisons are grounded in the chart, including housing rising from about 10% to 19% and food falling from 35% to around 17%. This covers the task well, but some details are less fully or accurately reported. In particular, the 2018 transport figure is about 14%, not approximately 19%; the final sentence also groups several categories unclearly, making it difficult to match each figure to its category. State the key increases and decreases more precisely to make the report more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for the two years. The progression from the largest categories to smaller ones is generally easy to follow, and transitions such as “Overall” and “While in 2018” help signal the comparison. However, the repeated ranking language (“Second,” “Third,” “Fourth”) makes parts of the report feel like a list rather than a comparison. The final sentence is especially difficult to follow because it names several categories before giving a sequence of figures, so the links between them are unclear. Pair each figure directly with its category and use comparisons across years to create smoother progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of task-related vocabulary, including “allocation,” “budget,” “priority,” and “approximately,” and the reader can understand the main trends. There are, however, some inaccurate or unnatural choices that limit precision. For example, “the least allocation for money goes to” and “Families in 1968 gives more priority” are awkward collocations, while “footware” and “tranportation” are misspelled. “Transportation” is understandable, but the chart label “transport” is more concise and appropriate here. Aim for standard chart-reporting phrases such as “accounted for” or “the share spent on,” and check spelling carefully so that your vocabulary sounds more natural and precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple statements and more complex structures, including the contrast introduced by “whereas” and the sentence beginning “While in 2018.” Most sentences communicate the intended meaning, but some grammatical errors remain. For example, “35% of the families budget goes” needs a possessive form (“families’ budget”) and more natural agreement with the percentage; “Families in 1968 gives” has a subject–verb agreement error; and “Fourth, are 3 essentials…” has an incorrect sentence structure. The phrase “least priority for budget are” also has an agreement problem. Review possessives, agreement, and sentence construction, especially when using ranking phrases, while continuing to vary your sentence forms.

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