Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-18
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 illutrates amount of jobs in four sectors in the year 1960 to 2020 of the us economy.
Over all, manufacturing and agriculture industries shows a down trend, where as, health care and retail services followed up trend in jobs creation in the given years.
In 1960, health care and retails started at roughly around 0.2 and 6 millions vacancies, which increased to 5M and 10 millions in 1980 respectively. By the next 20 years the numbers surged 10 millions in medical and 15 millions in sales sector. Thats is around 5 millions jobs created after each 20 yeras gap. Finally, it reached upto 16 millions jobs in the year 2020.
In contrast, the manufacturing sector started at 15M and surged considerably till 1980 to 20M0. After it inclined down to approximately 12M jobs by 2020. Similarly, agriculture started from 6M to 3 millons in 1980, remaind somewhat constant till 2000 and decrease down to about 2 millions in the 2020.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student covers all four sectors shown in the graph and attempts to make relevant comparisons, successfully identifying the overall trends (manufacturing and agriculture decreasing versus healthcare and retail increasing). However, there are some inaccuracies and misreadings of the data. For instance, the student states that healthcare and retail started at '0.2 and 6 millions' in 1960, whereas healthcare started at approximately 2 million. Additionally, '20M0' is a typo or misstatement regarding manufacturing in 1980. Despite these minor data inaccuracies, the response adequately highlights the main features and trends, fulfilling the core requirements of Task 1.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organized into four paragraphs, following a logical structure with an introduction, an overview, and separate body paragraphs for the different trends. Cohesive devices and transition markers are used, such as 'Over all', 'In 1960', 'By the next 20 years', and 'In contrast'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in awkward transitions like 'After it inclined down' and 'Thats is around 5 millions jobs created after each 20 yeras gap', which disrupt the flow of information slightly.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student attempts a range of vocabulary appropriate to a data-driven task, including terms like 'vacancies', 'surged', 'sector', and 'constant'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors, such as 'illutrates', 'amount of jobs', 'down trend', 'up trend', and 'inclined down'. Furthermore, some expressions are unnatural or inaccurate, such as 'medical and sales sector' referring to healthcare and retail. These lexical errors do not impede communication, but they reflect a limited and occasionally inaccurate range.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response includes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over past tense structures and time markers (e.g., 'In 1960, health care and retails started... which increased to...'). However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, such as missing prepositions or articles ('in four sectors', 'the us economy', 'remaind somewhat constant'), as well as typographical errors like 'yeras'. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the overall data, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score.
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.