Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

The bar charts and line displays the result of a survey conducted over a 3 years period to asterain what people who live in London think of the city.

overall the worst things about london are higher than the best things about london estimatly over 20%. while the best things about london kept

declining over the cost of the 3 years, also litter air quality and noise where a major problem in london.

In details the worst things about london in year one had a inceasre in cost of living, raffic congestion and crime approximately over 58% while in year two and three it kept fluctuating the highest in year 2 been traffic congestion with over 58% while the lowest was transport with over 25%, year 3 was similar with year 2 with slight difference with the highest been cost of living with over 53% and the lowest been transport with 25%.

In contrast the best thing about living in london had a steady decrease throughout the years, year 1 having the highest as range of shops with 45% while the lowest was night life and transport with 25%, while year 2 and 3 highest were range of shops with approximately 41% and 43% respectively. Meanwhile the major problme in london which litter had an increase at 70% till it started to decrease and stopping at 68%, while air quality and noise started at approximately 67% and 58% respestively and had a decreas before coming to a stopped at estimatly 66% and 55%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response covers all three visual components presented in the prompt: the best things, the worst things, and whether specific issues are major problems in London. However, there are several misinterpretations and inaccurate data readings. For instance, the student states that the worst things were 'higher than the best things... estimatly over 20%', which misinterprets the distinct categories of data. Furthermore, data citations contain inaccuracies, such as claiming night life and transport in year 1 were 25% (they were approximately 22%), and misreading the line graph trends for litter and air quality. The overview is overly simplistic and partially flawed. Therefore, the response fulfills the task requirements only partially, earning a Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The text is organized into paragraphs, attempting an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs detailing the charts. However, logical progression is weak. The overview places contradictory and confusing claims right at the beginning, and paragraphing is somewhat disjointed with abrupt transitions. Cohesive devices are repetitive and basic (e.g., 'In details', 'In contrast', 'while'), and referencing is occasionally unclear, making the flow bumpy. Paragraph 3 also lacks clear internal structure. This aligns well with the Band 5.0 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate to convey basic ideas, but it is limited and repetitive (e.g., 'highest', 'lowest', 'cost of living'). There are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, including 'displays' instead of 'display', 'asterain' instead of 'ascertain', 'estimatly' instead of 'estimated', 'inceasre' instead of 'increase', 'raffic' instead of 'traffic', 'problme' instead of 'problem', and 'respestively' instead of 'respectively'. These lexical errors and frequent spelling mistakes cause noticeable strain for the reader, placing the response firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts some complex structures, but these are often faulty or run-on sentences. For example, the sentence starting with 'overall the worst things...' is a massive run-on joined improperly by commas and lowercase beginnings. There are persistent errors in capitalization ('london', 'overall'), article usage, and prepositions ('over the cost of the 3 years', 'coming to a stopped'). Subject-verb agreement issues also appear (e.g., 'noise where a major problem'). While simple sentence forms are occasionally accurate, frequent grammatical errors cause difficulty, justifying a Band 5.0 score.

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

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