Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-12

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 4.5)

The first pie chart illustrates the main reasons why Britain students are learning foreign a languages, according to teachers, While other pie charts explain how much there is a significant increase.

Overall, business and travel got the highest percentage. In contrast with general interest approximately 6% and personal development with 7%. But now the motivation has changed and people have started learning so they can invest in property.

The primary motivation was business and travel now significant changed occured, travel percentage ha decline by 3%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response significantly fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, containing only 85 words. Consequently, the information is presented in a very abbreviated and partial manner. While the student attempts to describe the main reasons for learning a foreign language, such as mentioning business, travel, general interest, and personal development, the data is not fully or accurately detailed. The second chart regarding recent changes in reasons is mentioned vaguely with phrases like 'motivation has changed', but lacks the necessary quantitative description and development. Due to the severe under-length penalty and incomplete coverage of the data, this response falls into the lower bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The organization of the response is weak and lacks a clear, logical progression. The student attempts to structure the text into an introduction and body sentences, but the paragraphing is underdeveloped and abrupt. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes awkward, such as 'In contrast with general interest approximately 6% and personal development with 7%. But now...' This creates a choppy reading experience. Referencing and linking between ideas are frequently faulty, making it difficult to follow the overall flow of information between the two distinct charts.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, showing a limited range appropriate for academic reporting. The student manages to use some basic topic-related words such as 'percentage', 'motivation', and 'property', but struggles with appropriate word choice and collocation, as seen in 'Britain students' instead of 'British students' or 'students in Britain', and 'learning foreign a languages'. There are also lexical gaps where precise descriptive language for data (such as proportions, figures, and trends) is missing. The vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey basic concepts, but insufficient for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The grammatical range is extremely limited, relying primarily on simple sentences with frequent structural errors. There are notable issues with basic sentence construction, punctuation, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'business and travel got the highest percentage' and 'travel percentage ha decline by 3%'. Complex structures are attempted poorly, as demonstrated in 'While other pie charts explain how much there is a significant increase.' These frequent errors cause noticeable difficulty for the reader and obscure the precise meaning of the reported data.

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

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