Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The given pie charts gives us the information about the responses by teachers of foreign languages in Britain to a survey concerning why their students are learning a foreign language. The data has been calibrated in percentage.

A cursory glance at the pie charts is adequate enough to reveal that the reason is travel because of which students are learning a foreign language. The percentage of such students is 33%. Similarly, 34% of the students learn foreign language with the motive of buying property overseas whereas only 25% of the students gives the reason of business work to learn foreign language.

Further looking at the graph, teachers felt the sharp decline in the survey of learning foreign language. Only 4% students learn foreign language for their personal developments and for foreign partners. On the other hand, an abrupt decrease can be seen in travel where only 3% of students are learning the foreign language for their travel purpose.

Overall, buying property and business work are the main reasons of learning foreign language.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student covers the main features of the two pie charts, mentioning key data points such as 33% for travel, 34% for buying property, and 25% for business work. However, the interpretation of the second chart regarding whether teachers felt there has been a recent change is confused with actual percentages of reasons. For instance, the student states that "teachers felt the sharp decline in the survey of learning foreign language" and misinterprets the 4% and 3% figures. Consequently, some parts of the task are misinterpreted or under-developed, aligning best with a Band 5.5 performance.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response has an introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion, showing some basic organisation. However, the logical progression is flawed due to confusing interpretations of the data. Cohesive devices are used, but sometimes awkwardly or repetitively, such as "Further looking at the graph" and "On the other hand". Paragraphing is attempted, though the connections between ideas lack smooth transitions, making the overall arrangement somewhat mechanical. This fits the Band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with attempts at less common items such as "cursory glance", "calibrated", and "abrupt decrease". However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, for example, "the data has been calibrated in percentage" and "gives the reason of business work to learn foreign language". While communication is not severely impeded, these lexical slips restrict the score to a solid Band 5.5 or 6.0 range. We award 6.0 as the student attempts a sufficient range for the task.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as "A cursory glance... is adequate enough to reveal that the reason is travel because of which students are learning a foreign language." There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as "The given pie charts gives us" (subject-verb agreement error) and "gives the reason of business work to learn foreign language". Despite these errors, they rarely impede overall communication, placing this criterion at Band 6.0.

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

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