Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-20

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 5.0)

The bar chart depicts the best and worst things about living in London in three years and line graph illustrates proportion of people answering yes to major problem in London.

Overall, the best things about living in London is availablity of varieties of shop while the worst things about living in London is traffic congestion in every years. In second year the litter is the major problem about the people of London. Around 35% of people find best about mixture of people in first and second year. The rates of job opportunities is similar in second and third year which is 34%. The cost of living, traffic congestion and crime is worst things about living in London. In year 1 and 2 around 33% of people believed cost of housing is worst thing and in third year it increased to 38%. The noise is least major problem in London. The air quality is 65% in first year and decrease to 62 by the third year.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion4.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the three-year scope and include relevant features from the charts, such as shops being a leading positive and litter being a major problem. However, several comparisons are inaccurate or unclear: traffic congestion is not the worst feature in every year (crime is marginally higher in Year 1), and the cost-of-housing figures are about 35%, 34.5% and 36.5%, not around 33% rising to 38%. The job-opportunity figures are about 35% in both Years 2 and 3, rather than 34%. The overview also misses important patterns, including the high but changing figures for litter and the general decline in air-quality and noise concerns. Select the clearest trends and report them accurately.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a recognisable opening and an overview, and it moves between positive features, negative features and major problems. However, the information is presented in one paragraph, so the reader has little help distinguishing the overview from supporting details or separating the chart groups. The sequence also jumps between topics—for example, from litter to mixture of people, then job opportunities and housing—without a clear organising principle. Some links, such as “In second year,” are basic and do not clarify how the point relates to the previous one. Use separate paragraphs for the overview and key details, and group comparisons by chart or by positive and negative features to create a clearer progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant chart vocabulary, including “proportion,” “major problem,” “traffic congestion” and “cost of housing,” so the topic is generally clear. However, the range is limited and several word choices or forms are inaccurate or awkward: “availablity of varieties of shop,” “find best about mixture of people” and “the rates of job opportunities” do not express the intended comparisons naturally. “Worst things” is repeated, and “major problem about the people” is unclear. These choices sometimes make the reader work to understand the meaning. Build a more precise range for describing survey results, such as “respondents,” “percentage,” “was regarded as,” and “concern,” while checking spelling and natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a few sentence forms, including an overall statement and comparisons across years, but most sentences rely on simple patterns, and errors recur in agreement, articles and verb forms. For example, “the best things … is” should use a plural verb, while “the rates … is” also has a subject–verb agreement problem. In “the air quality is 65% … and decrease,” the verb form does not match the sentence structure. Articles are also missing in phrases such as “in second year” and “in first and second year.” These errors do not prevent the main topic from being understood, but they reduce accuracy. Practise accurate plural subjects and past-tense reporting, then combine related comparisons in controlled complex sentences.

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