Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-16

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 depict the outcomes of a survey conducted over a period of three years to discover what people who live in london think of the city.

The best thing about living in London in all the three years was the range of shops available followed by the job opportunities. In the first two years, the percentage for mixture of people living there was the same (close to 40%); while in the third year, the percentage dropped to 35%. The intrest of audience increased in terms of museums and art galleries as the years passed. Similarly, night life of the city had shown the same trend as museums one but with overall lesser percentage than previous one. In case of transportation, not much people thought it was a best thing.

There were 5 aspects which seemed to be worst for public. Cost of living, traffic congestion as well as crime were the categories which has the percentage above 35%. Meanwhile, cost of housing contriibuted around 35% for the first two years, then slightly uplifted next year.

Line graph represents public who agreed for things which were major problem in London. The graph of litter in first year was at 70% then peaked in next year and then in last year it dropped by around 3%. The graph for air quality as well as noise had the same declined slope.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You cover the three visuals and identify several relevant patterns, including shops as the leading positive feature and litter as a major problem. However, the account is only partly accurate and some key comparisons are unclear. The mixture-of-people figures are about 36% in Years 1 and 2 and 34% in Year 3, not close to 40% followed by 35%. The litter figure falls from about 75% to 65% in Year 3, a drop of around 10 percentage points, not 3%. You also omit an overall summary of the main contrasts and give limited detail on the worst aspects. A clearer overview and more accurate selection of figures would make the report more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response is divided into paragraphs for the positive features, negative features and line graph, so the reader can follow its broad organisation. You also use basic links such as “Similarly,” “Meanwhile” and “In case of.” However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow: the first paragraph moves through several categories without consistently comparing their figures, and the second gives a broad claim before listing only some supporting details. Some linking phrases are awkward or do not clearly show the relationship between ideas. Add a concise overview after the introduction, then group the most important comparisons and use clear references to the years and categories. This would make the organisation more coherent and cohesion less mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “job opportunities,” “traffic congestion,” “cost of housing” and “air quality,” which helps communicate the chart categories. There are also attempts at more formal reporting language, such as “depict” and “contributed.” However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural, including “intrest of audience,” “uplifted” for a percentage increase, and “not much people thought it was a best thing.” Spelling errors such as “london,” “intrest” and “contriibuted” are noticeable. These do not prevent understanding, but they reduce precision and control. Aim for standard chart-report collocations such as “the proportion rose” and check spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a comparison joined with “while” and a sentence describing a trend across years. Meaning is generally understandable, but errors recur in agreement, articles and verb forms. For example, “the percentage … was the same” is followed by “the percentage dropped,” while “not much people” should use a plural quantifier and “was a best thing” needs an article adjustment. In “categories which has,” the verb does not agree with the plural noun, and “had shown” is not the natural tense for the chart description. Use the past simple consistently for the survey period, check singular/plural agreement, and proofread articles and sentence boundaries.

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