Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-27

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 graph above represent a comprehensive comparision between the number of employment generated among 4 different sectors of the exonomy of the US, for every 20 years from [redacted phone], constituting a total of 6 decades. Jobs in the healthcare sector with the lowest rates in the early 1960's show an incremental boom till 2020. On the other hand, jobs in thagricultural sector faced a rather significant decline from the 1980's as compared to the starting of 1960. Furthermore, we see the jobs in retail domain touching the numbers similar to the jobs in healthcare in 2020, whereas initially starting with an exact number of jobs to that of agricultural sector in 1960.

Comparing the number of jobs with the four respective sectors, manufacturing sector definitely had the highest job stats overall in the 1960's. While hitting 20 million jobs in 1980 facing a rather gradual fall till 2020.

Therefore, this summarises how manufacturing sector being the highest in employment went to the 2nd highest sector in the US economy for jobs, whereas healthcare starting at the lowest is now a number 1 contributor alongside of retail jobs in the US economy.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features, trends, and comparisons across the four sectors shown in the graph. The overview is clearly stated in the concluding paragraph, highlighting key shifts such as manufacturing moving from the highest to the second highest and healthcare rising alongside retail. Key data points, such as manufacturing peaking at 20 million in 1980 and healthcare and retail reaching 16 million in 2020, are accurately cited and compared. However, there are minor instances of slight overgeneralisation in sentence phrasing, but overall the visual data is well interpreted and supported. The content is fully relevant to the prompt, earning a solid Band 7.0 for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a clear overall progression and logical organisation. Information is grouped reasonably well, moving from an introductory overview into body paragraphs discussing specific trends and comparisons, and ending with a summary. Cohesive devices such as 'On the other hand', 'Furthermore', and 'While hitting' are employed to connect ideas, though paragraphing is somewhat fragmented, with a very short second body paragraph. Additionally, referencing is occasionally slightly awkward, as seen in 'Comparing the number of jobs with the four respective sectors'. These minor issues in structural flow and paragraphing place the response firmly in the Band 6.0 category.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully incorporating less common lexical items such as 'incremental boom', 'significant decline', and 'employment generated'. However, there are a few noticeable word-choice and spelling errors, such as 'comparision' instead of 'comparison', 'exonomy' instead of 'economy', and 'thagricultural' instead of 'the agricultural'. The phrase 'touching the numbers similar to' is also slightly unnatural. These inaccuracies do not impede communication, but they prevent the score from reaching a higher band, making Band 6.0 an appropriate evaluation for Lexical Resource.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writing exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at varied clause structures (e.g., participial phrases like 'constituting a total of 6 decades' and 'starting with an exact number'). However, there are several grammatical errors and punctuation issues throughout the text. For instance, 'The graph above represent' contains a subject-verb agreement error, and fragments like 'While hitting 20 million jobs in 1980 facing a rather gradual fall till 2020' lack a main finite verb. Another fragment occurs in the conclusion ('Therefore, this summarises how... went to...'). These errors cause occasional readability issues, justifying a Band 5.5 score.

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