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 compares the expenditure of families from a weekly income in a country in two years 1968 and 2018.

Overall, The expenditure fell dramamtically over the years. The highest amount was spent on food while the lowest amount was spent on fuel and power and personal goods.

On the first hand, in 1968, 35% of income was spent on the food, then the housing hold the second stage at 10%. The cost spent on fuel and power was considerably lower than others items. While household good, transport and personal goods hoeld the same amount.

On the other hand, During 2018, the largest propotion of income was spent on the leisure which was significantly higher than all others. It was near to 20 %. Fuel and power and personal good was also lowest in this year. While expenditure on houing and transport increased about 19% and 14% respectively. But houseold was same in both years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the two years and report several relevant figures, including food at 35% in 1968, leisure at about 20% in 2018, and housing and transport at 19% and 14%. However, the overview is partly inaccurate: spending did not fall overall in every category, and food was not the largest category in both years; leisure was highest in 2018. The claim that fuel and power and personal goods were the lowest in both years also overlooks clothing at 5% in 2018, below fuel and power at 4% only marginally and equal to neither. Some comparisons are underdeveloped, and the 1968 figures for several categories are not clearly reported. Give a more precise overview of the main shifts, then support it with accurate comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for 1968 and 2018. This makes the broad organisation easy to follow. The contrastive phrases “On the first hand” and “On the other hand” help signal the two periods, although the first is not the natural expression for this purpose. Within paragraphs, some links are mechanical or unclear: “While household good, transport and personal goods hoeld the same amount” does not clearly state the shared figure, and the final “But houseold was same in both years” is abrupt. Improve progression by grouping the most important increases and decreases and using clear references to the categories and values.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, such as “expenditure,” “proportion,” “significantly higher,” and “increased,” and you attempt to describe comparisons rather than simply list figures. However, inaccurate word choice and spelling are noticeable and sometimes make the meaning less clear. Examples include “the housing hold the second stage,” “the largest propotion,” and “houseold was same.” “On the first hand” is also an unsuitable collocation. Use precise chart language consistently, such as “accounted for,” “share of weekly income,” and “remained unchanged.” Check spelling carefully, particularly for key category names, so that errors do not distract from the data.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and longer comparisons, but control of sentence structure is limited and errors occur frequently. For example, “The bar chart compares the expenditure of families from a weekly income” uses an unclear grammatical relationship, while “While household good, transport and personal goods hoeld the same amount” is an incomplete clause. There are also problems with articles, agreement, and sentence boundaries, as in “Fuel and power and personal good was also lowest.” Capitalisation after “Overall” and “During” is inconsistent. Aim first for accurate complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, then add complex clauses using “while” or “whereas” only when both sides of the comparison are grammatically complete.

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