Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The bar chart illustrates the results of a three year survey asking London residents about the best aspects of living in the capital.

Overall, the range of shops was consistently rated as the best thing about London, while nightlife and transport were considered the least positive aspects. Most categories showed a slight decline over the three years, with the exception of museums and art galleries.

In year 1,45 % of respondents cited the range of shops as the best feature, making it the most popular category. This figure fell slightly to around 42% in year 2 and year3. Job opportunities and the mixture of people wre yhe next most valued, both at around 36-38% in year 1, decreasing marginally to 34 35 % by year 3.

Museums and art galleries was the only category to show an upward trend, rising from 29% in year 1 to 34% in year 3. In contrast, nightlife and transport were related lowest, with both categories fluctuating between 20% and 24% across the three years, with transport seeing a small increase to 23% in the final year.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the main features of the prompt by presenting an overview and discussing the best things about living in London with some supporting data. However, the candidate only covers one of the three charts provided in the stimulus, completely omitting the data regarding the worst things about living in London and the percentages for major problems. This means the task is only partially addressed, with some parts missing entirely. While the selected overview and trends for the best features are relevant, the failure to report on the other charts keeps the response at this band level. To reach higher bands, the writer must ensure all visual components of the prompt are appropriately summarised and compared.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The text shows a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression between the introduction, overview, and body paragraphs. Paragraphing is used appropriately to group related information. Cohesive devices are generally present, such as 'Overall', 'In year 1', and 'In contrast', which helps guide the reader through the data. However, referencing and cohesion can occasionally feel a bit mechanical or basic. To push into higher bands, the writer could incorporate a wider variety of more sophisticated cohesive links and ensure smoother transitions between the individual data points and overarching trends.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully conveying general trends and numerical changes with terms like 'consistently rated', 'upward trend', and 'fluctuating'. The candidate attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'proportion' or descriptive phrases, but encounters lexical inaccuracies and typos like 'wre yhe' instead of 'were the' and 'related lowest' instead of 'rated lowest'. These errors do not impede communication, but they reflect typical limitations at this band. To achieve a higher score, the writer should expand their range of precise collocations and ensure careful proofreading to eliminate word choice and spelling slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, successfully employing subordinate clauses and introductory phrases. There is good control over basic structures and punctuation, and errors are relatively infrequent, rarely impeding communication. Examples of minor inaccuracies include spacing and punctuation around numbers, such as 'In year 1,45 %' and '34 35 %'. The majority of error-free sentences point toward characteristics of higher bands, but the persistence of minor slips and a somewhat restricted variety of advanced syntactic structures keep the response firmly at this level. Enhancing the variety of complex grammatical patterns while maintaining precision would elevate this score.

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

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