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 illustrates the number of employment in millions across four different sectors including manufacturing, retail, healthcare and agriculture of US economy during 1960 and 2020.

Overall, the employment rate increased in healthcare and retail whereas it decreased in manufacturing and agriculture.

The number of jobs dramatically rose in healthcare which was around 2 million in 1960 and reached to 16 million in 2020. Similarly, the employment in retail sector grew significantly from 6 million in 1960 and climbed to 16 million in 2020.

In contrast the workforce in manufacturing department

plummeted before experiencing increased Meanwhile, the agriculture department recorded the constant decrease in jobs. In 1960 the jobs were around 6 million in this sector that declined sharply to 3 million in 1980 and maintained the level off in 2020

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student successfully identifies the overall trends and main features of the four sectors over the 60-year period. Key data points, such as the rise in healthcare and retail and the decline in agriculture and manufacturing, are generally reported accurately. However, there are some minor descriptive lapses towards the end, such as 'plummeted before experiencing increased', and the response falls short of the 150-word minimum requirement at 132 words. Consequently, the task achievement is penalised for under-length and incomplete development in certain areas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is structured with an introduction, an overall summary, and body paragraphs detailing specific sectors. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'Similarly', and 'In contrast' are used to link ideas. However, paragraphing is disrupted towards the end with a broken sentence ('plummeted before experiencing increased Meanwhile...'), and overall progression becomes somewhat disjointed in the final section, leading to a moderate coherence score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, utilizing terms such as 'illustrates', 'dramatically rose', 'climb', and 'plummeted'. However, there are awkward word choices and collocation errors, such as 'the number of employment' instead of 'the number of employees' or 'level off' being used incorrectly as a noun phrase ('maintained the level off'). Spelling is generally accurate, but the range is somewhat limited by these occasional lexical inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as relative clauses and temporal prepositional phrases. There are, however, several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, including missing articles ('of US economy') and a truncated sentence fragment ('plummeted before experiencing increased'). Punctuation is also missing at the end of the final sentence. While these issues do not entirely obscure meaning, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher band.

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

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