Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-08-27

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The pie charts below show responses by teachers of foreign languages in Britain to a survey concerning why their students are learning a foreign language. The first chart shows the main reason for learning a foreign language. The second chart shows how many teachers felt that there has been a recent change in the reason.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

% of teachers reporting the following as most common reason for learning:

Student answer (Band 5.0)

The charts show the percentage of the most common reason for learning a foreign language and the percentage of an increase in people learning.

In the first chart, travelling was the most sought after as 33% people learned foreign language so they could travel whereas, the least common reason was foreign partner which was at 3%. At the second, business and work was the most collective since 26% learnt it for business or work.

However, in the second chart buying properties overseas was the most popular by 34% with travel being at a low trend of 3%. In this graph business and work is again the second most preferred with a percentage of 19%.

The common reason for learning versus the people learning for following reason shows great variation as he percentage for travel has significantly decreased and buying properties is more common in the reasons for people actually learning with a percentage of 34% and in the most common reason for learning it remains at 19%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response attempts to describe the data, but it fails to accurately interpret the charts. The student confuses the two charts, mislabeling the second chart as 'business and work' or 'buying properties' when the prompt clearly indicates the second chart shows the 'recent change in the reason'. Furthermore, the data points cited are often incorrect or misattributed. For example, the student claims 'buying properties' is 34% in the second chart, which is not supported by the provided context. The overview is missing, and the report lacks a clear summary of the main trends, which is essential for a Band 6 or higher. The response is largely inaccurate in its reporting of the data.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is organized into paragraphs, which is a positive feature. However, the progression of ideas is confusing because the data interpretation is flawed. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'However' and 'In the first chart', but they are often used to connect inaccurate information. The referencing is unclear, particularly in the final paragraph where the comparison between the two charts becomes muddled and difficult to follow. The lack of a clear logical flow makes it difficult for the reader to understand the relationship between the two sets of data.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is quite limited and repetitive. Phrases like 'most sought after', 'most collective', and 'low trend' are used in ways that do not accurately describe statistical data. There is little evidence of a range of vocabulary suitable for an Academic Task 1 report. The student relies on basic descriptors and struggles to use precise terminology for trends or comparisons. While the meaning is generally conveyed, the lack of precision and the misuse of terms like 'collective' to describe a percentage significantly limit the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as '33% people learned', 'at the second', and 'as he percentage'. Punctuation is also inconsistent, and there are issues with subject-verb agreement and article usage. While the errors do not completely prevent the reader from understanding the general intent, they are frequent enough to cause some difficulty and indicate a lack of control over complex structures. The writing lacks the accuracy required for higher bands.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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