Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-14

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 charts and line graph illustrate the outcome of a survey conducted in three years to find out what residents of London think about city.

Overall, the highest proportion of best things in London was range of shops in all three years, while the highest proportion of worst things was cost of living in year 1 and 3, whereas traffic congestion was most worst thing in year 2. Among the major problems, air quality and noise declined over the three year period while litter showed fluctuation in year 2, it inclined from year 1 to 2 and then sharply declined from year 2 to 3.

Regarding the best things for living in London, the highest percentage of best things was range of shops around 45% in year 1, approximately 43% in year 3 and about 42% in year 2. Meanwhile the lowest proportion of best things was

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the survey’s subject and provide an overview, noting that shops lead the positive features and that litter, air quality and noise are major problems. However, the report addresses the data only partially: it stops during the discussion of the best features, and gives no account of the remaining positive categories or the worst-things chart. The overview also misidentifies the leading worst feature: cost of living is highest in Year 1, but traffic congestion—not cost of living—is highest in Year 3. Litter’s rise and fall is accurately described. The response is two words below the required minimum, and the unfinished final sentence further limits coverage. To improve, complete the comparisons across all three charts and check each overview claim against the figures.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview and a paragraph beginning “Regarding the best things”. This gives the reader some sense of progression, and linking expressions such as “Overall” and “Meanwhile” help signal relationships. However, the report ends abruptly at “the lowest proportion of best things was”, so the final paragraph is incomplete and the charts are not all given a place in the organisation. The overview sentence about major problems also joins several ideas with a comma, making the relationship between them less clear. Use separate, focused paragraphs for the overview and each set of charts, and finish each comparison before moving on. This would make the progression more complete and the connections less dependent on basic linking words.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for describing survey data, including “highest proportion”, “declined”, “fluctuation” and “sharply declined”. These choices show some range beyond basic terms. However, several phrases are awkward or imprecise, such as “best things for living in London” and “most worst thing”; the latter also makes the comparison difficult to interpret. “It inclined” is not a natural way to describe a figure increasing, and “think about city” is missing a clear reference to London. The unfinished response also leaves the vocabulary range difficult to assess across the full task. Aim for precise chart-report collocations such as “most popular advantage”, “rose” and “the leading disadvantage”, and avoid repeating “best things” where a more specific category name is available.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mixture of simple and complex sentences, including a contrast with “while” and a longer sentence describing the litter trend. The main meaning is generally recoverable, but errors occur in sentence construction and grammatical forms. For example, “what residents of London think about city” lacks an article and a clear noun phrase, while “the highest proportion of best things was range of shops” needs an article or a more suitable construction. “Most worst thing” is also grammatically malformed, and the sentence beginning “Among the major problems” joins clauses with a comma rather than clearly separating them. The final sentence is incomplete. Practise accurate comparative structures and article use, and check that each sentence has a complete main clause and appropriate punctuation.

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