Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-14
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Some people believe that professionals, such as doctors and engineers, should be required to work in the country where they did their training. Others believe they should be free to work in another country if they wish.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 4.5)
The given bar chart provides information about how families spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.
Overall, families mostly spent their money on daily needs like food or transport. In the modern era, leisure accounted for the highest percentage of weekly income. On the other hand, food accounted for the largest proportion in the past.
As shown in the graph, the average weekly spending by families on food was over 35% in 1968, but in 2018 the percentage of spending decreased dramatically to over 17%. Housing had about 10% in 1968 and increased to just over 19% in 2018. Families' average weekly spending on fuel and power was the lowest among the others with just about 6% and 4% in 1968 and 2018, respectively. Clothing and footwear had over 10% in 1968, and decreased to 5% in 2018.
The average weekly spending by families on household goods was over 7% in 1968 and did not change thereafter. Personal goods also had about 7% in 1968, but in 2018 they declined to over 4%. Transport also had just over 7% like the last two categories in 1968, and had increased significantly to about 14%. In addition, the families spent on leisure about 7% of income, and the percentage grew sharply to over 22% in 2018.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 1.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0
The candidate has written an essay that completely misinterprets the prompt. Instead of discussing whether professionals like doctors and engineers should be required to work in their home countries versus being free to migrate, the student has described a bar chart about weekly household spending in 1968 and 2018. This indicates a complete failure to address the task prompt, which is an Academic Task 2 essay rather than an Academic Task 1 report. Additionally, the response is 216 words long, failing to meet the minimum 250-word requirement. Consequently, the task achievement cannot be scored adequately for the prompt given, resulting in a very low band score.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
Despite being written for the wrong task type, the text itself exhibits a basic logical structure typical of a Task 1 report. The student uses an overall introductory summary followed by body paragraphs detailing specific data points. Cohesive devices are used to transition between ideas, such as 'Overall', 'On the other hand', 'As shown in the graph', and 'In addition'. Paragraphing is attempted, though the body of the text is somewhat clumped. Because the language produced shows a logical flow and organization appropriate for a graph description, it achieves a moderate score for coherence and cohesion despite the severe task mismatch.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for describing statistical data and trends, featuring terms such as 'proportion', 'percentage', 'decreased dramatically', 'accounted for', and 'grew sharply'. There are appropriate collocations for data commentary like 'average weekly spending' and 'highest percentage'. While the range is somewhat limited and repetitive with phrases like 'had about' and 'spending by families', communication is not impeded. The student demonstrates sufficient lexical control to convey numerical information accurately, even though it answers the wrong prompt.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response demonstrates a reasonable mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The given bar chart provides information about how families spent their weekly income...' and 'Families' average weekly spending on fuel and power was the lowest among the others with just about 6% and 4% in 1968 and 2018, respectively.' There are control issues with prepositions and phrasing ('had about 10%', 'spent on leisure about 7% of income'), but the grammatical structures are generally clear and rarely impede communication. The majority of the sentences are grammatically intelligible.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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