Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-26

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 4.0)

The line graph reveals the percentage of waste being recycled from1960 to 2011 percentages and the amount of waste recovery in tons.

Overall, it can be seen from the graph that the percentage of recycling remained relatively steady between 1960 and 1970. This figure rose gently over the next 15 years to 10.1% in 1985.

On the other hand, the amount of garbage tripled in the same period, from 5.6 millions tons in 1970 to 16.7 million tons in 1985. Following this significant increase, the amount of waste material being recycled grew steadily between 1985 and 2011 when it peaked at 86.9millions tons.

Similarly, the recycling rate continued to grow sharply from 1985 to 1995, and then at a slower rate over the next 15 years until it reached the peak of 34.7% in 2011. However, this figure is still disappointing compared to the amount of waste being recycled each year

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 2.0

The candidate has completely misunderstood the prompt and the visual data provided. The student wrote about waste recycling percentages and tons (e.g., recycling rates reaching 34.7% and 86.9 million tons), which corresponds to an entirely different task, whereas the prompt explicitly asks about the number of jobs in four sectors of the economy in the US (Manufacturing, Retail, Agriculture, and Healthcare) between 1960 and 2020. Because the response addresses a completely different topic and does not report any of the correct data from the line graph, it fails to satisfy the core requirements of Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

Despite the severe off-topic content, the text displays a basic structural organization with an introductory overview and separate paragraphs for body details. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'On the other hand', and 'Similarly' are used to connect ideas, and there is some attempt at logical progression regarding timeframes. However, because the data being organized is entirely incorrect and irrelevant to the prompt, the overall coherence of the response as a task answer is severely compromised.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The candidate demonstrates a range of vocabulary appropriate for describing trends and data, including terms such as 'percentage', 'rose gently', 'tripled', 'significant increase', and 'peaked'. There are some minor typographical errors, such as missing spaces in numbers (e.g., 'from1960', '86.9millions'), but the lexical choices themselves are generally clear and relevant to data reporting, even though they are applied to the wrong subject matter.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as subordinate clauses ('while the percentage of recycling remained...') and passive constructions. There are instances of grammatical control in handling past tense data descriptions. However, spacing errors and occasional awkward phrasing are present, though most sentences remain grammatically intelligible despite the fundamental error in task content.

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

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