Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-16

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 two pie charts illustrate the reasons people learn a language and the proportions reporting a recent incresase in learners for each reason.

Overall, travel was the most common reason for learning, whereas buying property overseas accounted for the largest recent increase. Having a foreign partner was the least common reason in the first chart, while travel recorded the smallest increase in the sound.

In the first chart, travel represented 33% of teachers responses, the leading motivation. Business or work was the second most common reason, at 26%, followed by buying property overseas at 19%. Social contracts and personal development each accounted for 7%, while general interest was lower, at 5%. Only 3 % identified having a foreign partner as the main reason.

The second chart a different patttern. Buying property overseas had the highest proportion of recent increases, at 34%, followed by business or work at 19% social contacts and no change each accounted for 15% general interest accounted 5% while personal choise was 5. Overall the figure shows the most common reason was not what was thought. Travel dominated overall but buying property showed the most inrease.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student covers all parts of the task well, providing a clear overview and selecting key features from both charts. For example, the student correctly identifies travel as the most common overall reason (33%) and buying property overseas as having the largest recent increase (34%). The data is accurately cited throughout the response. However, there are minor transcription reading errors, such as mentioning the 'smallest increase in the sound' (likely a typo for 'second' or a misread of the chart) and missing some exact figures in the final paragraph where 'personal choise was 5' is stated instead of 4%. Despite these minor flaws, the main trends are successfully highlighted, satisfying the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7.0. The overview effectively captures the primary contrast between dominant general reasons and recent growth areas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is structured logically into four distinct paragraphs: an introduction, an overview, body paragraph one detailing the first chart, and body paragraph two detailing the second chart. This provides a coherent overall arrangement. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader, such as 'Overall', 'In the first chart', and 'The second chart a different patttern'. However, cohesion suffers from some abrupt transitions and missing grammatical elements, such as in the sentence 'The second chart a different patttern' where a verb is omitted. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different parts of the data, but referencing and linking across sentences could be smoother to achieve a higher band score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully employing terms like 'proportions', 'accounted for', 'leading motivation', and 'proportion of recent increases'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with some success, though there are noticeable spelling errors ('incresase', 'patttern', 'choise', 'inrease') and awkward phrasing such as 'smallest increase in the sound'. Word choice is generally clear enough to communicate the intended meaning, but lexical control is inconsistent. To reach a higher band, the student needs to eliminate spelling mistakes and demonstrate greater precision and flexibility in collocation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as using subordinate clauses ('whereas buying property overseas accounted for the largest recent increase'). However, grammatical accuracy is undermined by several errors and missing words, including verb omissions ('The second chart a different patttern') and punctuation/spacing issues ('Only 3 % identified'). While these errors do not impede overall communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the response from achieving a Band 7. Control over simple structures is generally good, but complex forms often contain slips.

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

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