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 graph below gives us information about how families in one country spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018. Overall, in 1968 families spent their most of the weekly amount on food and lowest on fuel and power. Furthermore, in 2018 highest wages were spent on leisure activities and lower wages were spent on fuel and power and personal goods.

Firstly, in 1968 families in one country they spent their weekly income on food 35%. On housing & clothing and footware same porportion of wages were used 10%. On Leisure around 9% and transport, personal & household goods around 8% income were spent. On fuel and power lowest income was used approximately 6%.

Secondly, in 2018 trend was changed and on leisure activities around 22% weekly wages were used by people. Moreover, on housing around 19% and on food 16%. Besides this, on transport they spent 14% and on household goods 7%. On fuel & power, clothing & footware and personal goods they spent under 5% of their weekly income.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You provide a relevant summary and identify the main shift: food was the largest category in 1968, while leisure became the largest in 2018. Most figures are reported accurately, including food at 35%, housing at about 19%, and transport at 14%. However, the overview says fuel and power and personal goods were the lowest in 2018, overlooking clothing, which was also around 5% and slightly higher than the two categories at 4%. The statement that these categories were “under 5%” is therefore inaccurate. Some comparisons are also less fully developed: for example, you could explicitly contrast the sharp fall in food spending with the rise in leisure and housing. A more precise overview and clearer comparisons would strengthen the report.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction and overview are followed by separate paragraphs for 1968 and 2018. This makes the two years easy to distinguish, and sequencing phrases such as “Firstly” and “Secondly” help guide the reader. However, the progression within the paragraphs is sometimes list-like, with categories presented one after another rather than grouped by meaningful changes. “Furthermore,” “Moreover,” and “Besides this” are used mechanically, and the latter does not clearly signal the relationship between the figures that follow. Improve cohesion by grouping categories that rose, fell, or remained stable, and use linking expressions only when they clarify a comparison. This would make the organisation more analytical while retaining the clear basic structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic vocabulary to communicate the main information, including “weekly income,” “housing,” “transport,” and “leisure activities.” There is also some attempt to vary wording with “spent,” “used,” and “trend was changed.” However, several choices are imprecise or unnatural for describing a chart: “highest wages were spent” confuses wages with spending, and “trend was changed” is not a natural way to describe the comparison. “Porportion” is misspelled, and “footware” should be “footwear.” Repeated use of “spent” and “income” also limits flexibility. Aim for accurate reporting verbs and collocations such as “accounted for,” “the share allocated to,” and “rose/fell,” while checking spelling of category names.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, and the overall meaning is generally understandable. Some sentences, however, contain grammatical errors that reduce accuracy. In “families in one country they spent,” the subject is repeated; write “families in one country spent.” The phrase “they spent their weekly income on food 35%” needs a clearer structure, such as “35% of their weekly income was spent on food.” In the overview, “spent their most” should be “spent the most,” and “in 2018 highest wages” needs an article and a more suitable grammatical construction. There are also awkward sentence patterns in the category lists. Practise accurate passive forms and comparisons, and vary sentence structures while checking articles, word order, and agreement.

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