Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-12

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 and line graphs illustrates the outcome of a survey, conducted three for 3 years, to find out the views of UK residents about the city.

Overall, the bar graphs depicts that most of the people recommend a range of shops are the best thing whereas transport is the least on the list. Traffic congestion remained high for two years and transport is considered lowest in worst things as well along with litter considered a major and noise is the minor issue as per people.

As per shown in the graphs, the highest proportion which is around 45, is happy with the range of shops available, followed by job opportunities and diverse people with slighly lower than 40 throughout the years. museums and art galleries became popular in people each year, ranging between 30-40 percent. In the meanwhile, Night life showed the same pattern with the proportion of around 30 percent.

On the contrast, cost of living is considered as the worst thing with around 68% in first year, slightly dropped to around 50%. Whereas Traffic congestion remained worst at the same level in fiest two years almost similar to cost of living before it dropped in last year. While, people's perspective about crime changed drastically after first year dropped form almost 60 to around 40%. Almost 40% people voted for cost of housing, remained similar throughout the years. Whereas, transport remmained lowest in best and worst things with getting around 20% people's vote for best and aorund 30% for worst. Litter is considered as a major problem by 70% of people in year 1 which spiked to around 75 before its drastic fall to lower than 70 in year 3.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the survey’s broad themes and include relevant details from all three charts, such as shops being a leading positive feature and litter being a major problem. However, some key comparisons are inaccurate or unclear: cost of living is about 57% in Year 1, not 68%, and traffic congestion is highest in Year 1 and Year 2 rather than clearly “worst” throughout. The overview also says transport is the least positive feature, although the chart includes an unlabeled category at a slightly lower level in some years. Several trends are only partly described, and the final chart’s air-quality and noise figures are omitted. More accurate selection and comparison of the main features would make the report more complete and reliable.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable report structure: an introduction, an overview, and paragraphs describing positive and negative aspects. This gives the reader a basic route through the information. However, progression within paragraphs is uneven, and several linking expressions are awkward or repetitive, including “Whereas” and “While” at the start of successive clauses. Some references are also unclear: “the same level” and “the same pattern” do not specify precisely which years or values are being compared. The final paragraph combines several categories and the separate problem chart, making the information dense. Grouping related trends more consistently and using clearer comparisons would improve the flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant chart-report vocabulary, including “proportion,” “remained,” “dropped,” and “major problem,” and the reader can generally understand the categories being discussed. However, the range and control are limited by repeated or imprecise expressions such as “worst thing,” “around,” and “people’s vote.” Some collocations are unnatural, for example “most of the people recommend a range of shops” and “museums and art galleries became popular in people.” There are also noticeable spelling errors, including “slighly,” “fiest,” “remmained,” and “aorund.” Use more precise reporting language and check spelling; for example, describe respondents as “identifying” or “rating” features rather than “recommending” them.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple and longer sentences, including comparisons with “whereas” and “before,” but complex sentences are often faulty and errors recur across the report. For example, “The bar and line graphs illustrates” has subject–verb disagreement, while “conducted three for 3 years” is not a well-formed time phrase. Articles and sentence construction are also problematic in “most of the people recommend a range of shops are the best thing,” and some clauses are joined without a complete grammatical structure, as in “Almost 40% people voted for cost of housing, remained similar.” These errors sometimes make relationships between ideas difficult to follow. Practise accurate clause formation, agreement, and articles in comparative sentences.

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.