Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-21

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 6.0)

The line graph illustrates the information regarding the numbers of jobs in the US economy in four sectors between 1960 and 2020.

Overall, manufacturing jobs was popular sector in 1960 having the highest number of people employed and Healthcare was the least popular. However, Retail and healthcare shown an upward trend over the years whereas, Agriculture and manufacturing declined over the period.

In 1960, majority of the people employed in the US economy was in manufacturing with approximately 15 million jobs. The trend keep on growing steadily reaching its peak in the year 1980 to around 20 million before falling continuously at 13 million in 2020. Agriculture on the other has shown downward trend through out the period starting at around 6 million jobs in 1960 and finishing at just 2 million job in 2020.

Healthcare was least famous in 1960 accounted to just 2 million jobs after that the demand in the sector increases significantly through the period and reaches to around 16 million in 2020. Retail has also shown an upward trend in 1960 only 6 millions people were working in the sector. The number of jobs in retail grown steadily to around 15 millions in 2000 after that it remain constant for some years and finished at 16 million in 2020.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student successfully addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features and making relevant comparisons across the four economic sectors. The overview accurately captures the general trends, noting that retail and healthcare increased while agriculture and manufacturing declined. Key data points, such as manufacturing peaking at 20 million in 1980 and healthcare reaching 16 million in 2020, are correctly cited from the graph. The data selection is appropriate and effectively summarises the visual information, though there is some minor inaccuracy in stating that manufacturing was the most popular sector in 1960 when comparing relative starting positions. Overall, the response meets the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7.0 in Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement with a distinct introduction, an overview paragraph, and two body paragraphs detailing the specific trends. Logical progression is generally maintained as the student groups sectors logically (e.g., manufacturing and agriculture in paragraph three, healthcare and retail in paragraph four). However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or awkwardly used, such as 'after that the demand in the sector increases significantly'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas, but referencing and transitions between sentences could be smoother to achieve a higher band score.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'upward trend', 'downward trend', 'peaking', and 'remain constant'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation inaccuracies, such as 'manufacturing jobs was popular sector', 'famous' instead of 'common' or 'prevalent', and awkward phrasing like 'accounted to just 2 million jobs'. Spelling is generally good, but some lexical errors ('grown' instead of 'grew') indicate limitations in control. The vocabulary is minimally sufficient to convey the intended meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures with varying degrees of success. There are several grammatical errors and awkward constructions throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('jobs was popular sector', 'retail and healthcare shown', 'the trend keep on'), missing articles, and run-on structures without proper punctuation ('whereas, Agriculture and manufacturing declined over the period'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur with enough frequency to restrict the score to a Band 5.5.

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