Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-20

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 both bar charts and line graph show the best things about living in London and the worst things respectively in a survey that is conducted over a three year time duration.

The first chart shows the amazing things about London over the 3 year duration which includes transport, variety of shops, job oppertunities, different people, night life and amusement places. The percentage of thesethings varies over the given time duration.

For instance, Transport had about 20% ratio in 2nd year and there was a rose in variety of shops in 1st year etc.

The second chart shows the people agreeing on the worst things in London, these includes crime, living expense, cost of housing, trafiic problems and transport.

For example, chart shows highest crime ratio in year 1, then it drops in second year and then rose slightly in third year. All the difficulties that stated earlier vary in differnt years.

And the line graph shows the major difficulties from which people are suffering. These are Litter, Noise and air quality, which vary across the given period of time.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response attempts to describe all three charts provided in the prompt, covering the best things, worst things, and major difficulties of living in London. However, the treatment of the data is very superficial and lacks an overall summary or clear selection of key trends. For instance, the student writes that transport had about a 20% ratio in the second year, but misses major comparative points such as the 'range of shops' consistently scoring the highest percentage in the first chart. Furthermore, some labels are misread or generalized vaguely, such as 'amusement places' or 'living expense'. While all parts of the task are addressed to some degree, the lack of data synthesis and proper overview keeps this performance at Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The text is organized into four paragraphs, reflecting an attempt to break down the introduction and the three separate charts. However, the overall progression is weak due to abrupt transitions and vague referencing, such as starting paragraphs with 'For instance' or 'For example' without properly linking the ideas. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes repetitive. Paragraphing is present, but the internal logical flow within paragraphs is disjointed, notably in the second paragraph where specific data points are tossed out without clear structural development. This aligns well with the Band 5 descriptor for coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate to convey basic concepts related to the charts, but it remains somewhat limited and repetitive. Words like 'things', 'duration', and 'chart' are overused. There are also noticeable lexical errors and inaccurate word choices, such as 'there was a rose' instead of 'there was a rise', and spelling errors like 'oppertunities', 'trafiic', and 'differnt'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success or poor collocation. These vocabulary constraints and mechanical errors place the lexical resource firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('The both bar charts', 'survey that is conducted'), incorrect verb tenses or passive forms ('a survey that is conducted over a three year time duration'), and preposition issues ('ratio in 2nd year'). Additionally, there are punctuation and capitalization slips. While the meaning remains mostly clear to the reader, the density of errors in basic and complex structures prevents the writing from achieving a Band 6, making Band 5.0 the most accurate descriptor.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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