Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-01

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 graph and line graph illustrate the opinion of the people living in London about the city by comparing the best and worst features through a survey conducted over a three-year period.

Overall, the bar graphs represent the likes and dislikes about the city of the native people by comparing various categories, while the line graph visualizes the percentage of people addressing the major problems in London. However, people love the city for its range of shops. Conversely, they also think of it as worst because of the high living cost.

London attracts people with a high rate of job opportunities and a mixture of people, as agreed by approximately 33-35% of people. Over three years, museums, art galleries and nightlife have also increased gradually and become attractions for people to live there. Transport is another reason to make the city better for everyone.

On the contrary, more than 50% of people think that London is not a top choice to live in for its cost of living in the first year, which reduced a bit in the next two years. Almost 55% of the residents feel that traffic congestion and crime rate are two major reasons to make the city worse. People expressed their feelings about crime rate over the next 2 years declined to roughly 38-40%. Moreover, cost of housing and transport remain another major reason.

However, people feel that litter is the major problem in London which fluctuated over three years whereas air quality and noise follow a gradual decrease.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by describing the mixed charts concerning the best and worst aspects of living in London, as well as major problems over a three-year period. However, the development of ideas is uneven. While the writer attempts to summarise the main trends, some data points are generalised or slightly under-developed, such as grouping 'museums, art galleries and nightlife' together without specifying precise individual movements, or making broad assertions like 'Transport is another reason to make the city better'. The overview provided in the second paragraph captures the general essence of the charts, but could be sharper in outlining the overarching trends across all three graphs. To reach a higher level, the response would need to select and highlight key data comparisons more systematically rather than listing figures chronologically.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The report presents a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical structure, moving from an introductory overview into body paragraphs discussing specific aspects of the charts. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different categories of data. However, cohesion at times feels mechanical or slightly repetitive, relying heavily on transitional phrases like 'However', 'On the contrary', and 'Moreover' to link sentences. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the pronoun use in 'reduced a bit in the next two years' or 'remain another major reason', which makes it occasionally difficult to track which specific sub-category is being referenced. Greater flexibility in cohesive devices and smoother transitions between sentences would elevate this aspect.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate main ideas about urban surveys. There are appropriate attempts to use less common vocabulary items and phrases, such as 'traffic congestion', 'cost of living', and 'fluctuated over three years'. However, there are instances of imprecise word choice and slight awkwardness in collocation, for example, using 'addressing the major problems' instead of 'perceiving' or 'identifying', or stating that people think of the city as 'worst' rather than 'worse'. Spelling is generally accurate, and vocabulary errors do not impede overall communication, but a wider and more precise range of lexical items is needed for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and participial phrases, such as 'as agreed by approximately 33-35% of people' and 'a survey conducted over a three-year period'. There are some grammatical errors and awkward structures, such as subject-verb agreement slips ('cost of housing and transport remain') and prepositional inaccuracies like 'feel that London is not a top choice to live in for its cost of living'. Punctuation is generally functional. However, these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede communication, allowing the reader to follow the intended message without significant strain.

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

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