Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-15

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?

What are the best things about living in London?

Student answer (Band 5.5)

This bar charts and line graphs illustrates survey that has been conducted over a three year to predict the prespectives of individuals who are living in London regarding what they think of the city.

Overall, there are two bar graphs and one line graph. The first graph it depicts the best things that are worthwhile about living in London, while the second bar graph shows the worst things. On the other hand, the line graph illustrtes the major problem faced by individuals living in London.

Looking at the first best features of the London, the range of shops held the highest approval, starting around% in year 1 and stabilizing near 43% by year 3. Job opportunities and mix of people follwed closely, both hovering between 30% to 38% across the years. Conversly, museums and art galleries, night life and transport alomst shows positive side .

Regarding worst aspects, cost of living and traffic congestion cited by the largest proportions of people, starting high around 55% in year 1 and dropping to 50% and 47% by year 3. Crime and transport were viewd as major concerns about 35% to 55%of the population. Finally, line graph indicates that litter was consistently seen as the biggest problem followed by air quality and noise .

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the main categories and provide a general overview, including that shops lead the positive features and litter is the most prominent problem. However, several key details are missing or unclear, so the report only partly fulfils the task. The figure for shops in Year 1 is left blank (“starting around%”), and the statement that cost of living and congestion fall to 50% and 47% by Year 3 misrepresents the chart: they are about 50% and 49%, respectively, while congestion is unchanged in Year 2. The comparison of crime and transport as concerns “about 35% to 55%” is too broad to convey their different patterns. Include precise, selected figures and describe the changes across all three years more accurately.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for positive and negative aspects. This gives the reader a sensible route through the information, and transitions such as “Overall,” “Regarding,” and “Finally” help signal shifts. To make the progression more consistently clear, organise each detail around a direct comparison across the three years rather than grouping several categories into broad statements. The overview also describes the charts themselves (“there are two bar graphs and one line graph”) instead of summarising the main findings. Some linking is mechanical, and the contrast marker “On the other hand” does not express a clear contrast in that sentence. More precise connections between trends would strengthen cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “range of shops,” “job opportunities,” “traffic congestion,” and “air quality,” and attempt more formal reporting language such as “cited” and “consistently.” However, inaccurate word choice, spelling, and collocation are noticeable and sometimes make the meaning less clear. For example, “predict the prespectives” is not an appropriate way to describe survey findings, and “held the highest approval” is less natural than saying shops were the most popular feature. There are also misspellings such as “follwed,” “Conversly,” and “illustrtes.” Aim for accurate, conventional chart-reporting phrases and proofread spelling; this will make your vocabulary more precise without requiring unnecessarily complex wording.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of sentence forms, including longer sentences with clauses, but control is inconsistent. Errors occur in basic sentence structure and agreement: “This bar charts and line graphs illustrates” combines a plural subject with a singular verb, while “The first graph it depicts” contains an unnecessary second subject. The opening also needs articles and a more accurate grammatical pattern (“a survey that was conducted over a three-year period”). In “starting around%,” the sentence is incomplete because the figure is missing, and punctuation and spacing are uneven. These problems sometimes make the intended meaning difficult to follow. Practise building accurate simple sentences first, then add subordinate clauses while checking subject–verb agreement, articles, and sentence boundaries.

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