Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

This line graph presents available vacancies in four different department of economy from 1960 to 2020 in US.

overall, the numbers of jobs in Manufacturing sector increased at first but, afterward it started to decreased. The Retail sector offered large numbers of jobs throughout the given period, in contrast to Agriculture and Healthcare.

In 1960, vacancies in Manufacturing and Retail sector soaring to their peak value which was around 20 millions for Manufacturing and half of that for Retail. After this drastic increase, jobs in manufacturing sector started to decreased from 1980 to 2020 and,reached to its lowest value. However, the Retail jobs increased dramatically from 1980 to 2000, afterward this trend had low down.

From 1960 to 1980, jobs in Healthcare rised at slow rate but, in 1980 to 2020 it surged to 15 millions. The Agriculture department offered limited seates in the given period and, in 2020 it reached to lowest number of available jobs as compared to other departemnts.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student attempts to cover the main features of the graph, presenting an overview and mentioning key trends for Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, and Agriculture. However, there are significant inaccuracies in reporting the data. For instance, the student states that vacancies in Manufacturing and Retail 'soaring to their peak value' in 1960, whereas the graph shows Manufacturing peaked in 1980 at 20 million, and Retail started low at 6 million and rose steadily. Additionally, the data points for Healthcare and Agriculture contain confusions regarding years and values. While the prompt's overall trends are partially acknowledged, the misinterpretation of specific figures and timelines holds this criterion down to a Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into paragraphs, beginning with an introduction, followed by an overview, and body paragraphs discussing specific sectors. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions and contrasts, such as 'overall', 'at first', 'afterward', 'in contrast to', and 'however'. However, paragraphing is somewhat basic, and referencing is occasionally unclear or clumsy, such as 'afterward this trend had low down.' While there is an overarching progression, the logical flow is disrupted by mechanical transitions and imprecise grouping of data, placing it securely at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, attempting topic-specific terms like 'vacancies', 'sector', and 'department'. However, there are frequent word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'department of economy' instead of 'sector of the economy', 'soaring' used incorrectly as a past tense verb form without auxiliary support, and 'low down' instead of 'slowed down' or 'leveled off'. Spelling errors such as 'decreased' spelled correctly in places but with grammatical suffixes misapplied, and 'seates' instead of 'seats' or 'positions', limit the score to Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing coordinating and subordinating conjunctions ('while', 'whereas', 'but'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent tense and verb-form errors, such as 'started to decreased' instead of 'started to decrease', 'jobs in Healthcare rised' instead of 'rose', and punctuation issues such as commas placed incorrectly before coordinating conjunctions or missing articles (e.g., 'in US'). These frequent grammatical errors cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a Band 5.0 level.

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

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