Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-16

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 5.0)

The following bar graph shows the result of survey conducted over a three-year period to discover people's thoughts about living in London. Here we discuss about the best and worst things about living in London.

Firstly, The graph shows best thing about living in London is appen to be the range of shopes oves the three-year period a the percentage is comparatively higher. Then we have job oppertunities and diversity of people which is between 35-40%. Then we have museums and art galleries, improved over the three-year tenure. Lastly we see the status of night life and transport which are showing improvement over the three-year period but remain at lower percentages.

Next we have another bar graph revealing the worst things to experience being in London. The bar of living cost and traffic congestion are comparatively higher over the three-year period. The crime rate improved dractically. Then again we have cost of housing and transport which I think needs a little improvement.

The last graph shows that People are discussing about litter problem to be the major issue in London.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The student attempts to describe the charts, covering the best and worst aspects of living in London as well as the third chart regarding major problems. However, the response falls short of a fully developed academic report. Several key figures are generalised or vague (e.g., stating percentages are 'between 35-40%' or simply noting that things 'improved' without providing specific comparative data). Furthermore, there is an over-reliance on personal commentary ('which I think needs a little improvement'), which is inappropriate for an Academic Task 1 response. The overview is weak, lacking a clear, synthesized summary of the overall trends across the three charts. Consequently, the task is only partially addressed, aligning with Band 5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is divided into paragraphs, attempting to group information logically by chart ('Firstly', 'Next', 'The last graph'). However, the overall progression lacks strong cohesive flow and sophisticated linking devices. The use of repetitive transitional phrases ('Then we have...', 'Next we have...') results in a mechanical structure. Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear or confusing, such as abrupt shifts between the different data sets without smooth transitional phrasing. Paragraphing is attempted but suffers from underdeveloped connections between sentences, leading to a disjointed reading experience. This matches the descriptors for Band 5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses a basic and repetitive vocabulary range appropriate for simple communication, but struggles with precision and spelling. There are noticeable errors such as 'appen' instead of 'appear', 'shopes' instead of 'shops', 'oppertunities' instead of 'opportunities', and 'dractically' instead of 'drastically'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success ('tenure', 'status'), and word choices are often informal or repetitive (using 'then we have' multiple times). While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the basic topic, the frequent spelling and word-choice errors cause some difficulty and prevent the score from rising higher than Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a very limited range of sentence structures, relying primarily on simple sentences and repetitive clauses ('The graph shows...', 'Then we have...'). When complex structures or dependent clauses are attempted, they frequently contain errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('the result of survey', 'The bar of living cost... are') and awkward phrasing ('People are discussing about litter problem to be the major issue'). Punctuation is basic, and frequent grammatical errors cause strain for the reader. This performance aligns closely with the Band 5 descriptors, where frequent errors in grammar persist and restrict structural variety.

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