Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-08-29

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The bar charts and line graph below show the results of a survey conducted over a three-year period to discover what people who live in London think of the city.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

What are the best things about living in London?

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The charts show the results of a survey about what people think are the best and worst things about living in London The survey was conducted over three years. The line graph shows the percentage of people who thought that litter, air quality and noise were major problems.

Overall, The range of the shops was best thing about the living in London, while the cost of living, traffic congestion and crime were main disadvantage, In addition, litter was considered the most serious environment problem throughout the period.

In terms of the best things above the London, The range of shops was most popular choice. It was selected 45% by people in Year 1, In year 2 people selected 42% and in year 3 43% selected range of shops. Job opportunities and mixture of people are mostly common people choose. while night life and transport was low people selected around 35%

Looking at the worst things, the cost of living was chosen by about 57% of people in Year 1 and 50% in Year 3. Traffic congestion also fell, from about 55% to 49%. Crime decreased from around 55% to 38% before incresed slightly to 40%. The number for the cost of housing were about 35%, while transport fell from 35% to around 27%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have successfully identified the key features of the charts and provided a clear overview. You covered both the 'best' and 'worst' aspects of living in London, which is essential for a complete response. However, the data reporting is inconsistent; for example, you mention 'Job opportunities' and 'mixture of people' in the text, but these categories are not clearly quantified or compared against the provided data points. Additionally, some figures are presented in a way that is slightly confusing, such as stating '45% by people' rather than '45% of people'. To improve, ensure that every claim made is directly supported by the data provided in the charts and avoid introducing categories that are not clearly defined in the visual aids.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure of your report. You use some cohesive devices, such as 'Overall,' 'In terms of,' and 'Looking at,' to transition between sections. However, the use of punctuation is often faulty, with commas used where full stops are required (e.g., 'Year 1, In year 2...'). This makes some sentences run on and affects the flow. Additionally, some referencing is slightly mechanical. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensure that your punctuation supports the logical progression of your ideas rather than hindering it.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You have an adequate range of vocabulary to describe the trends, such as 'major problems,' 'popular choice,' and 'traffic congestion.' However, there are several instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'best thing about the living in London' (should be 'living in London') and 'environment problem' (should be 'environmental problem'). There are also minor spelling errors like 'incresed.' While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main points, it lacks the precision and flexibility required for higher bands. Expanding your repertoire of reporting verbs and collocations related to data trends would be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is a good start. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, particularly with articles ('the London'), prepositions, and subject-verb agreement. For instance, 'The range of shops was most popular choice' is missing an article, and 'mixture of people are mostly common people choose' is syntactically unclear. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to lower the score. To improve, pay closer attention to basic sentence construction and proofread for common errors like missing articles and incorrect verb forms.

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