Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-03

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 two provided pie charts illustrate responses by teachers of different languages in Britain to a survey thinking why their students are wanting to learn another language. The initial chart displays the main factor for learning a foreign language. The second chart demonstrates how a considerable number of teachers felt that there has been a current change in the reason.

Overall, it is immediately apparent that the most effective factor for this trend is traveling, whereas having a foreign partner considered the less effective one.

Turning to the most common reasons, travel experienced the bigest proplem which is 33 percentage. Moreover, business and/ or work considered the second most factor at 26 percentage. Followed by buying property overseas at 19 percentage. Furthermore, personal development and social contacts share the same which is 7 percentage.

Regarding recent increase in individuals learning a foreign language, buying property overseas experienced a significant upward trend , which was 34 percentage, while, travel witnessed a marked decline to just 3 percentage. Personal development declined to 4 percentage and social contacts to 15 %.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt and attempts to cover the key features of both charts, such as travel being the most common reason and buying property overseas having the highest recent increase. However, the task is only partially addressed because some of the data interpretation is inaccurate or poorly expressed, such as misinterpreting the chart categories (referring to 'travel experienced the bigest proplem' and stating that travel witnessed a decline in the survey on reasons for learning). While an overview is attempted, it is mechanically integrated. To reach a higher band, the response needs to provide a more accurate and fully extended selection of data, ensuring that trends and comparisons are correctly identified without misrepresenting the source figures.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates some organization, utilizing paragraph breaks to separate the introduction, overview, and specific body paragraphs detailing the charts. However, there is no clear overall progression, and the logical flow is hindered by awkward transitions and mechanical cohesive devices like 'Turning to the most common reasons' and 'Furthermore'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and some sentences feel disjointed from the preceding text. To improve coherence and cohesion, the student should ensure a smoother progression of ideas between paragraphs and employ a wider, more natural variety of linking words to connect data points and comparisons effectively rather than relying on repetitive transitional formulas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate for the task. The student attempts some less common terms and phrases, such as 'initial chart', 'considerable number', and 'upward trend', but these are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and form, such as 'travel experienced the bigest proplem' instead of proportion or percentage, and using 'percentage' instead of percent. Spelling and word formation issues also emerge throughout the text. To achieve a higher band, the student should expand their range of functional vocabulary for describing data—such as using synonyms for proportions, shares, and figures—and improve precision in word choice and collocations to avoid unnatural expressions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a very limited range of sentence structures, relying primarily on simple statements with frequent attempts at complex clauses that are often faulty or awkward, such as 'survey thinking why their students are wanting' and 'how a considerable number of teachers felt that there has been'. There are frequent grammatical errors, including issues with subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, prepositions, and awkward phrasing. These errors can cause occasional difficulty or confusion for the reader. To lift this criterion to a higher level, the student needs to demonstrate a greater variety of complex structures with improved accuracy, paying closer attention to verb tenses when reporting survey data and ensuring that grammatical patterns are correctly formed.

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

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