Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-06

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 4.0)

The pie charts illustrate the results of the responses by the foreign language teaching community regarding the increase in learning foreign languages.

The first pie chart depicts that 33% students prefer to learn foreign languages due to tourism whereas 19% learn as they wanted to purchase property overseas. 26% learn as they have to travel for business and work. Other 7% wanted to learn for personal development, 7%social contact,5% have general interest and the remaining 5% having foreign partner

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, which significantly impacts the score. Furthermore, the task requires a report on two pie charts, but the student only addresses the first chart and completely ignores the second chart regarding the 'recent change' in reasons. The information provided is merely a list of the percentages from the first chart without any attempt to group the data, identify key trends, or provide a meaningful overview. Because the response is severely under-length and fails to address a major part of the prompt, it cannot be awarded a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response lacks a clear structure. It consists of an introductory sentence followed by a single paragraph that lists data points. There is no paragraphing to separate the overview from the details, and the lack of cohesive devices makes the text feel like a disjointed list rather than a report. The progression of ideas is absent, as the student simply jumps from one percentage to the next without using linking words or transition phrases to guide the reader through the data.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary is very basic and repetitive. The student relies heavily on the phrase 'learn as they' to introduce each data point. There is no attempt to use a range of vocabulary suitable for describing statistical data, such as 'account for', 'constitute', 'the largest proportion', or 'a significant minority'. The phrasing 'other 7%' and 'remaining 5%' is awkward and lacks the precision expected in an academic report. The range is insufficient to convey the information effectively.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The response contains several grammatical errors. For example, '33% students' should be '33% of students'. The sentence 'Other 7% wanted to learn for personal development, 7%social contact,5% have general interest and the remaining 5% having foreign partner' is poorly constructed, lacking proper punctuation and consistent verb tenses. There is a lack of complex sentence structures, and the simple sentences used are often grammatically flawed. The errors in punctuation and subject-verb agreement are frequent and occasionally impede the clarity of the information.

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

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