Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-28

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 5.5)

The pie chart illustrates the details of the responses by various teaches in a language insitutes in Britain to a survey conducted on the reasons of their students learning the foreign language.Looking from an overall perspective it is readily apparent that two main reasons (buying oversees property and Business work) rose marginally, while travel declined considerably. 'Social contacts' and 'foreign partner' also drew with some percentage despite remaining the less common reason for learning a foreign language.

In the first pie chart, one of the main reasons reported by teachers as most common reason was travel being 33% taking a great size of the proportion following with business or work at about 26%. Another main reason which has been dominant is buying property overseas which was reported at about 19%, however the remaining reasons (general interest, social contacts, personal development and foreign partner) were surveyed significantly low.

In the second pie chart, the reason of travel to learn a forreign language noticibaley declined to represent just 3%, while buying property oversees and business or work related resons took a major proportion size followed by some percent of 'no change' which were surveyd at 34%, 19% and 15% respectively. The data of the remaining catogries did not see alot of change but only increase between 1% and 8%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student attempts to address both charts, identifying the main reasons and some changes. However, there are notable inaccuracies in data interpretation. For instance, the student states in the overview that buying overseas property and business/work rose marginally while travel declined considerably, which misinterprets the second chart where buying property overseas is actually the leading reason for a recent increase (34%) and travel dropped to 3%. Furthermore, some descriptions lack precision. Despite these misinterpretations, the key features of the charts are generally introduced and an overview is attempted, placing this performance at Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The report is divided into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs dedicated to each chart. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'In the first pie chart', 'Another main reason', and 'In the second pie chart'. However, some sentences are excessively long and run-on, which impairs the flow, such as the second sentence of the introduction. Paragraphing is adequate, but overall progression is occasionally hindered by clunky transitions and repetitive sentence structures. This aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'marginal', 'considerably', and 'proportion'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'teaches' instead of 'teachers', 'insitutes' instead of 'institutes', 'oversees' instead of 'overseas', 'noticibaley' instead of 'noticeably', 'catogries' instead of 'categories', and 'alot' instead of 'a lot'. These errors detract from the quality of the lexical resource, though communication is generally maintained, resulting in a Band 5.5 score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but many sentences suffer from grammatical inaccuracies and poor punctuation. There are missing prepositions, awkward phrasing ('travel being 33% taking a great size of the proportion following with'), and incorrect participle clauses ('Looking from an overall perspective it is readily apparent...'). Errors in subject-verb agreement and punctuation are frequent. While complex forms are attempted, they are often faulty and require effort from the reader to parse, fitting the Band 5.5 criteria.

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

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