Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-22

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 graph illustrates the information of four jobs sectors into different field in the US from 1960 to 2020.

Overall, Manufacturing production reached the peak of a success in the beginning, later facing downtrend. In strak contrast, Retail and Heathcare sectors were grown steadily over the years, followed by Agriculture kept declined since the starting.

In 1960, Manufacturing were stood at the highest numbers compare to all three production, touched a mere 15 million, after two decades it surged upto 20 million remained the only one touched higest figures. However, it faced the least importance from 1980 and fell sharply till 2020 only a mere 13 millon, Followed by

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The response attempts to summarise the main features of the graph, identifying the general trends for Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, and Agriculture. An overview is provided, noting the peak of Manufacturing and the growth of Retail and Healthcare. However, the response fails to meet the minimum length requirement of 150 words, stopping abruptly at 109 words with an incomplete sentence ("Followed by"). Furthermore, the data reporting is somewhat imprecise, and key comparisons across the whole period are missing due to the premature ending. Because the task is significantly under-length and incomplete, it falls into the lower bands for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The text attempts a logical structure with an introduction, an overview paragraph, and the beginning of a detail paragraph. Cohesive devices such as "Overall", "In strak contrast", and "after two decades" are used to attempt transitions. However, paragraphing is disrupted by the unfinished nature of the text, and there are mechanical cohesion issues. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the text breaks off abruptly at the end, preventing any effective final organisation or progression.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student attempts some less common vocabulary such as "downtrend", "surged", and "steadily". However, there are multiple spelling and word choice errors, including "jobs sectors into different field" (job sectors into different fields), "strak" (strak/stark), "Heathcare" (Healthcare), and awkward phrasing like "reached the peak of a success". Vocabulary range is limited and repetition occurs, while inaccuracies in collocation and spelling constrain the precision of the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as "In 1960, Manufacturing were stood at the highest numbers compare to all three production..." However, grammatical accuracy is poor. There are frequent errors involving subject-verb agreement ("Manufacturing were stood"), incorrect prepositions and word forms ("compare" instead of "compared", "production" instead of "sectors"), and tense inconsistencies. The abrupt termination of the response also leaves a major grammatical fragment at the very end.

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

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