Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-20

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 5.0)

the provided graph illustrates the information about the number of job in four sectors of the economy in the US between 1960 and 2020.

overall , the retail and healtcare sectors had the highest number of job , while the agriculture had the lowest job.

in 1960, although jobs in the sectors of retail and healthcare remaind lowest, at 10% and 5%, number of jobs increased along with the period. similarliy , both sectors had highest number of job in 2020 among all four sectors. however, the sector of agriculter continously declined since 1960 to 2020 and remaind the lowest number of job. moreover, the sector of manufacturing incread in 1960, at 20% , it slightly declined in 2026, at 14%.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The student attempts to cover the main trends in the graph, such as mentioning that retail and healthcare increased while agriculture declined, and noting the figures for manufacturing. However, there are significant inaccuracies in the data reported. For example, the student states that retail and healthcare were at '10% and 5%' in 1960, whereas the chart shows figures in millions of jobs (6 million and 2 million). Furthermore, manufacturing is stated to be at '20%' in 1960 and '14%' in 2026 (an impossible year for the given data). Crucially, the response is under-length at only 121 words, failing the 150-word minimum requirement. This leads to under-development of the overview and necessary comparisons.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The text is divided into rudimentary paragraphs, including a brief introduction and an overview sentence. However, the progression is disjointed and awkward. Cohesive devices are used minimally or inappropriately, such as the mechanical transition 'moreover' and the misspelled 'similarliy'. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the lack of proper punctuation and capitalization severely disrupts the flow of the writing. While there is a basic attempt to group information logically, the poor overall organization and faulty paragraph structure keep this criterion at a lower band level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, relying on terms like 'number of job', 'sectors', and 'increased'. There are notable word-choice errors, such as using percentage signs (%) instead of millions for employment figures, and spelling mistakes like 'healtcare', 'remaind', 'similarliy', 'agriculter', and 'incread'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary related to economic sectors, but the inaccurate lexical control and frequent spelling errors restrict the score to this band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'although jobs in the sectors of retail and healthcare remaind lowest... number of jobs increased'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the response. There are frequent errors in verb tenses ('remaind', 'incread'), subject-verb agreement, and missing plural markers ('number of job'). Punctuation and capitalization are almost entirely neglected (starting sentences with lowercase letters), which heavily impacts readability, though the core meaning can generally be parsed.

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