Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-28

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 illustrate number of jobs distributed into four sectors of economy in the US categorized between year 1960 to 2020

Overall, the number of jobs had progressed in healthcare sector along with retail sector, whereas it was noticed the decreased in the manufacturing and agriculture sector over this time period.

in 1960 around 2 millions of jobs were organized into the healthcare sector and 6 million in retail sector. Over the time there was noticed that around 5 millions and 10 millions of jobs were circulated in 1980 between both healthcare and retail sector simultaneously. both sector continued to grow positively and by the end of year 2020 the highest number of jobs were established by 16 millions in both healthcare and retail sector.

regarding the number of jobs in agriculture and manufacturing sector during the initial year 1960 manufacturing sector was leading with the

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response attempts to cover the main trends in the graph, successfully identifying the growth in healthcare and retail alongside the decline in agriculture and manufacturing. However, the response is incomplete as it trails off abruptly at the end while discussing the manufacturing sector. Furthermore, the length requirement of 150 words is not met, as the text contains only 146 words, which leads to a slight penalty in this criterion. An overview is present, but overall development is cut short.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has an identifiable introduction and a clear overall attempt at organisation, beginning with an overview paragraph followed by body details. However, paragraphing is disrupted by the incomplete ending and lack of proper closure. Cohesive devices are somewhat repetitive or awkward (e.g., 'Over the time there was noticed', 'simultaneously'), and referencing is occasionally unclear. Logical progression is also hindered by the abrupt cut-off in the final sentence.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for a basic summary, featuring relevant terms like 'healthcare sector', 'retail sector', 'manufacturing', and 'agriculture'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'The graph illustrate' (missing 's'), 'had progressed in' instead of 'grew in', and 'jobs were organized into' or 'jobs were established by'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success, and spelling or lexical inaccuracies prevent the score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a limited range of sentence structures, primarily simple and somewhat clumsy complex forms. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('The graph illustrate'), missing articles ('the healthcare sector'), and awkward passives ('there was noticed that'). Punctuation is also weak, with missing full stops at the beginning of paragraphs and an incomplete final sentence that breaks off mid-thought. These errors cause some difficulty for the reader.

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