Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-17

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)

This line graph illustrates the trends about the US job market over the period of 60 years from1960 to 2020 showing number of jobs available in four economic sectors.

Out of give four economic domains, first of all i will talk about the manufacturing industry that started with 15 million jobs in 1960 and hiked to the highest number of all time in 1980 at 20 million which was then followed by a steady drop at around 13 million in 2020. Retail and healthcare sector experienced a visible steady increase in the number of jobs starting from around 7 million and 2 million respectively in 1960 to almost 17 million in 2020. Agriculture remained the only domain which never grew over the period of 60 years and experienced a fall in the number of jobs from around 7 million in 1960 to hardly 2 million in 2020.

Keeping in view this data, i can say every economic sector has grown up over the period of 60 years and offered more jobs except manufacturing and healthcare.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all four sectors (Manufacturing, Retail, Agriculture, and Healthcare) and provides key data points such as initial and final figures. However, there are significant factual errors in the reporting and overall summary. For instance, the student states that retail and healthcare started from around 7 million and 2 million respectively, whereas healthcare actually started at 2 million and retail at 6 million in 1960. More critically, the final concluding sentence contains a major factual contradiction by claiming that 'every economic sector has grown up over the period of 60 years and offered more jobs except manufacturing and healthcare', when the data clearly shows that healthcare grew significantly from 2 million to 16 million, while agriculture fell. This demonstrates a misinterpretation of the visual data, pulling the score down to Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response has an introduction, a body paragraph, and a concluding sentence, providing a basic structural layout. However, the progression is hindered by informal narrative phrasing like 'first of all i will talk about'. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes repetitive. Paragraphing is attempted, but the grouping of information is somewhat disorganized, with all main body details crammed into a single block of text rather than logically separated. Referencing and logical flow are occasionally disrupted by the errors in data interpretation. It meets the criteria for Band 5.5 due to the mechanical nature of the cohesion and the lack of a clear, logical overview.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, utilizing terms such as 'trends', 'economic sectors', 'industry', and 'steady drop'. However, there are numerous lexical and stylistic shortcomings. The writer uses informal or inappropriate phrasing such as 'hiked to', 'give four' (instead of 'given four'), and lowercase 'i' throughout the text. There are also occasional inaccuracies in word choice when describing data movements. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey a general meaning, these persistent errors and lack of sophisticated phrasing place the lexical resource firmly at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses and participial phrases (e.g., 'starting with 15 million jobs in 1960 and hiked to...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent capitalization errors ('i' instead of 'I'), missing articles (e.g., 'Out of give four economic domains'), and tense inconsistencies or awkward shifts (e.g., 'started... and hiked... which was then followed'). Punctuation is also neglected, resulting in run-on sentences. These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader and restrict the grammar score to Band 5.5.

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