Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-14

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The graph below gives information about the number of jobs in four sectors of the economy in the US between 1960 and 2020.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Number of jobs in four sectors of the economy in the US, 1960-2020

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The line graph illustrates the job market created by the four sectors of the US economy from 1960 to 2020.

Overall, healthcare which initially employed the least number of people become the highest employed sector in 2020, overtaking the manufacturing sector which offered the highest number of jobs in 1960.

Healthcare begin with around 2 million workforce which rose gradually and till it reached its heighest point of approximately 16 million employees. Healthcare overtook manufacturing with started with 15 million employees which was the greatest number among all the other sectors.

There was a gradual decline in the agriculture sector which stood at around 6 million jobs in 1960 and fell to around 3 million in 2020. Retail sector took a start with the agriculture sector at about 6 million jobs bu

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the main overall change: healthcare rises from the smallest sector to joint-highest by 2020, while manufacturing falls from its initial lead. You also include some relevant figures, such as healthcare’s rise from about 2 million and manufacturing’s starting point of 15 million. However, the report is incomplete and covers the data only partially: it ends mid-sentence, does not describe retail’s full rise to 16 million, and gives agriculture’s 2020 figure as about 3 million rather than about 2 million. The overview also misses the key comparison that retail and healthcare both reach around 16 million in 2020. The response is below the required 150 words, which contributes to the limited development. Add a complete account of the main trends and accurate endpoint comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, an overview and paragraphs describing sector trends. This gives the reader some sense of organisation, and the contrast between healthcare and manufacturing is a useful organising idea. However, progression is weakened because the final paragraph stops at “bu”, leaving the retail comparison unfinished. Connections between details are also limited: the report moves from healthcare to agriculture and then retail without completing a clear comparison or summarising the endpoint figures. Some linking is present, such as “Overall” and “which”, but the relationships between trends could be made more explicit. Complete each paragraph and group sectors by their patterns—for example, rising sectors together and declining sectors together—to create a clearer progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of task-related vocabulary, including “illustrates”, “gradually”, “decline”, “overtaking” and “employed”, and the main trends are generally understandable. There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “the greatest number among all the other sectors”. Some choices are imprecise or unnatural, however: “job market created by the four sectors” does not accurately describe what the graph shows, and “highest employed sector” is awkward. “Workforce” is also not the best fit for a figure expressed as a number of jobs. Spelling errors such as “heighest” and the incomplete “bu” reduce accuracy. Prefer precise collocations such as “number of jobs”, “employment in healthcare” and “reached a peak of”.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including the relative clause in “manufacturing sector which offered the highest number of jobs” and the contrast introduced by “which initially employed the least number”. Meaning is usually recoverable, but several errors in verb forms and sentence construction remain. For example, “Healthcare begin” should be “Healthcare began”, and “which initially employed … become” needs a past-tense form such as “became”. In “Healthcare overtook manufacturing with started with 15 million”, the clause is not grammatically connected; use “which started with” or recast the sentence. The agriculture sentence also gives a 2020 endpoint without a clear grammatical link to the decline. Check tense consistency and ensure each clause has a clear subject and verb.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.