Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-29

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 bar charts and line graph illustrate the results of a survey established over three years period to discover what people think of living in London.

Overall, The best thing about living in london is that range of shops remain higher than other facilities given. On the other hand, there are higher cost of living and transport that almost remains constant over the three years. Whereas, the people think that littering can be major issue for city that decreased over the period.

The best thing about living in london is that there are range of shops that changed slightly in threee years. Museums & art galries and night life facilties increased over the time. Job opportunities and mixture of people both decreased a little with time.

On the other hand, The worst thing about living in london is that there is higher cost of living and that decreased over last two years. There is decline to crime from 56% to 40%. The only thing that increased is cost of housing. while traffic congestion decreased about 6% in last year. Air quality and noise both declined as a major problem for london in three years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student attempts to address all three visual elements provided in the prompt, covering best things, worst things, and major problems. However, the overview is rather weak and mechanical, failing to highlight the most salient trends clearly. Furthermore, some data points are misinterpreted or inaccurately described, such as claiming that the cost of housing is the 'only thing that increased' when other metrics also showed fluctuations. The reporting of specific percentages and trends contains generalisations and minor inaccuracies. While the student identifies key areas like the range of shops and cost of living, the overall development lacks precision. Consequently, this performance aligns best with Band 5.5 descriptors, where tasks are addressed only partially with some unclear or unsupported ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The report is divided into logical paragraphs reflecting the different charts, which aids basic readability. However, progression within and between sentences is frequently disrupted by awkward transitions and repetitive sentence openings (e.g., 'The best thing about living in london is that...'). Cohesive devices are used mechanically rather than flexibly. Reference words are sometimes vague, and punctuation errors around capitalization (e.g., starting sentences with lowercase letters or capitalizing words like 'The') detract from the overall flow. The logical organisation is sufficient to present a general arrangement, but the faulty cohesion and lack of smooth progression keep this criterion at a Band 5.5 level.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for a basic task report, featuring terms like 'survey', 'facilities', 'job opportunities', and 'traffic congestion'. However, the range is limited and repetitive. There are noticeable lexical and spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'galries' instead of 'galleries', 'threee' instead of 'three', and awkward phrasing like 'littering can be major issue for city'. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary items but lacks control over word choice and collocation. Overall, the lexical range and frequency of errors fit the Band 5.0 profile.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses ('what people think of living in London') and comparative forms. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in articles ('the range of shops', 'major issue for city'), prepositions ('established over three years period'), and verb tenses/agreement ('that almost remains constant', 'the people think'). Complex structures attempted by the student are often faulty, and punctuation errors are present. Because errors occur frequently and occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, this performance corresponds to a Band 5.0.

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

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