Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-03

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)

As per the bar graphs and line graphs provided to me, I can clearly see that that best thing about living in london is still its range of shops with 40%-50% people agreeing to that claim. Recently in year 3, museaums and art galleries have been gaining attraction, although not as much as the range of shops. Job opportunity has stayed constant for the last 2 years in 30%-40% range whereas mixture of people has seen a decline. Night life has significantly improved with over 20% people agreeing of it. Transport, although has remained more or less the same over the years. Worst thing about london is clearly traffic and cost of living as shown in Year 3. Crime rate has significantly reduced though. Litter is majorly seen as a big problem in london with 70% people answering yes followed by air quality and lastly the noise. All of these problems are at a downward trend though.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing information from the charts, such as the range of shops and traffic congestion. However, it only partially addresses all parts of the task. While some relevant ideas are presented, they are under-developed and lack a clear overview. Furthermore, the selection of data is somewhat erratic, mixing information from the best and worst aspects without a structured approach. The mention of museums and art galleries gaining attraction and the decline in the mixture of people shows some engagement with the data, but the lack of an overarching summary or clear paragraphing holds this criterion back.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The text lacks proper paragraphing, as it is presented as a single dense block of text, which significantly hinders overall progression and logical arrangement. There are basic cohesive devices used, such as 'whereas' and 'although', but referencing is sometimes unclear, and transitions between the various charts and categories are abrupt. The overall organization fails to guide the reader smoothly through the complex data presented in the multiple visual aids, resulting in a somewhat disjointed structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The lexical range is adequate for the task, attempting some less common vocabulary such as 'attraction', 'significantly', and 'downward trend'. However, there are noticeable word choice and spelling errors that slightly impede communication, such as 'museaums' instead of museums and the incorrect use of 'job opportunity' as an uncountable or singular noun phrase where 'opportunities' was needed. Despite these occasional inaccuracies and a heavy reliance on repetitive phrasing, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the general meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response features a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as clauses introduced by 'although'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation. Examples include capitalization issues ('london'), missing articles ('the best thing', 'traffic and cost of living'), and awkward prepositional usage ('agreeing of it' instead of 'agreeing that'). While these errors do not completely prevent the reader from understanding the main points, they occur often enough to cause some difficulty and prevent higher achievement in grammatical control.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.