Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-11-02

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 5.5)

The bar chart illustrates the percentages of weekly income of families in 8 different categories between 1968 and 2018 in a specific country.

Overall,the highest percentage of money spent on food in 1968,while the percentage of money spent on personal goods was lowest in the year of 2018.

In terms of spending,families spent most of the money on food leisure at 35% and 22% respectively in 1968,while this percentage was decreased for food at 17% and increased for leisure at 22% in 2018 respectively.Moreover,10% of money spent on both housing and clothing & footware in 1968 and in 2018 this percentage reached at 19% for housing and 5 % for clothing & footware.

For the remaining categories,spening on fuel and power and personal good were 6% and 8% respectively ,which fall in 2018 at 4% for both types.On the other hand ,tranportation spending was increased 8% to 14% in 2018.In addition,housing goods spending was still same in both years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the chart’s subject and make a relevant attempt at an overview by noting the high food spending in 1968 and the low personal-goods figure in 2018. Several key comparisons are also included, such as food falling from 35% to 17%, housing rising from 10% to 19%, and transport increasing from 8% to 14%. However, the overview is incomplete and partly inaccurate: leisure, not food, was the highest category in 2018 at 22%, while personal goods and fuel and power were both lowest at 4%. The sentence about food and leisure also muddles the years and repeats the 2018 leisure figure. Include the main overall shifts clearly, then report figures accurately and cover the other notable categories, especially leisure.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, and two paragraphs grouping comparisons. This gives the reader a coherent general route through the information, and linking phrases such as “Moreover” and “On the other hand” help signal additions and contrasts. However, progression is sometimes weakened by unclear references and mechanical connections. For example, “this percentage” in the food-and-leisure sentence does not clearly identify which category or year is meant, and “respectively” is used where the comparison is already confusing. The final paragraph also moves between fuel, personal goods, transport, and household goods without a clear grouping. Organise the figures into a more deliberate comparison, and use linking words only when their relationship is precise.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant chart vocabulary, including “percentages,” “categories,” “spent,” and “increased,” and you attempt to vary expressions with phrases such as “money spent” and “spending.” This is enough to communicate the general topic, but the range is limited and several word-choice or spelling problems reduce precision. “Food leisure” is unclear, “personal good” is not the correct form, and “housing goods” appears to mean household goods. There are also misspellings such as “spening,” “tranportation,” and “footware.” Use the chart’s category labels consistently and choose accurate reporting verbs and collocations, for example “accounted for,” “rose to,” and “fell to.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple statements and longer comparative sentences, including clauses linked with “while” and “which,” so there is some structural variety. However, errors in sentence construction and verb forms are noticeable and sometimes make comparisons difficult to follow. For example, “Overall,the highest percentage of money spent on food in 1968” is a sentence fragment, while “this percentage was decreased” uses an incorrect passive form. In “spending … were 6% and 8% … which fall in 2018,” the subject–verb relationship and tense are unclear. Punctuation spacing is also inconsistent. Practise writing complete overview sentences and use direct forms such as “spending fell” or “the figure decreased,” keeping past-tense reporting consistent.

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