Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-04

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 6.5)

The line graph illustrates information on the number of jobs in four different sector of the US economy between 1960 and 2020.

Overall, retail and healthcare are the most growing job sector over the period recorded while agriculture has shown a steady decline in job opportunity for the US economy over the period.

Healthcare sector provided the least job initially in 1960 around 2 million. Thereafter, it had shown a steady increase in the figure, growing from 5 million to around 16 million job opportunities. Also Retailing showed a steady climb over the period recorded, the number of jobs growing from about 6 million in 1960 to around 16 million in 2020, sharing the same figure with the healthcare sector the year too.

Manufacturing started initially with the highest number at 15 million, rose to 20 million in 1980, since then it fell to around 17 million to about 13 million from 2000 to 2020. Agriculture was recorded that lowest with its figure started at about 6 million to close to 2 million over the period recorded

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response covers all key features of the graph, including the trends for all four sectors. You have successfully identified the main trends, such as the growth in healthcare and retail and the decline in agriculture. However, the overview is slightly imprecise; for instance, stating that retail and healthcare are the 'most growing' sectors is a bit vague. Additionally, some data points are slightly inaccurate or confusingly phrased, such as the description of manufacturing's decline. To improve, ensure that your overview highlights the most significant overall trends more clearly and double-check your data reporting to ensure it matches the graph precisely.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The response is logically organized with a clear introduction, overview, and body paragraphs. You use some cohesive devices like 'Thereafter', 'Also', and 'since then' to link ideas. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and the paragraphing could be more balanced. The final paragraph is quite dense and attempts to cover too much information at once. Using a wider range of cohesive devices, such as 'In contrast' or 'Conversely', would help to better highlight the differences between the sectors and improve the overall flow of the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You have a sufficient range of vocabulary to convey the main points, using terms like 'illustrates', 'steady decline', and 'job opportunities'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'most growing job sector' (should be 'fastest-growing') and 'recorded that lowest' (should be 'recorded as the lowest'). These errors do not impede communication, but they do limit the precision of your writing. To reach a higher band, focus on using more sophisticated collocations and ensuring that your word forms are grammatically correct in context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors, such as 'four different sector' (should be 'sectors'), 'the year too' (should be 'that year too'), and 'its figure started at' (should be 'the figure started at'). There are also issues with article usage and prepositional phrasing. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the data, they occur frequently enough to impact the overall fluency. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and pluralization will help improve your accuracy.

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