Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-05

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 6.5)

The provided line graph illustrates the information about available employemnet in four different economical sectors of US, named Manufactring, Retail, Agriculture and Healthcare between 1960 and 2020 calculated in millions.

Overall, it is clear that retail and healthcare centre rose steadily to be at leading position as pair while manufacturing and agriculture showed the oppsite trend.

Manufacturing started with 15 millions, undoubtedly leading the economy in 1960 while others started with far lowest figures of available jobs. In 1980, manufacturing reached at the peak providing 20 million employment opprtunities. In 2000, however it fell gradually to nearly 17 million followed by continuous fall in next two years and finally reached around 13 million trailing behind by both retail and healthcare sector.

Retail and agriculture togethher began with same roughly 6 million of job opportunity in the US economy. Retail sector then rose steadily taking the highest position by outnumbering manufacturing domain. Agriculture, on other side, followed downward direction completing at nearly 2 million jobs making it lowest category in the US economy. Healthcare centre, meanwhile, commenced with lowest of 2 million then followed same path as retail section and peaked in 2020 becoming leading partner with retail sector.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by presenting a clear overview of the main trends and selecting key features to report and compare across the four sectors. The student accurately notes the dominant roles of retail and healthcare by 2020, as well as the decline in manufacturing and agriculture. While the ideas are generally well extended and supported with data points from the chart, there is a slight tendency to over-generalise or provide slightly imprecise figures in places, such as describing manufacturing's peak as 20 million when the gridline shows it, which sits comfortably at this level of achievement where all requirements are met with good clarity.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response demonstrates a clear logical organization and progression throughout. Information is grouped sensibly, with an introductory paragraph, a clear overall summary, and subsequent body paragraphs dedicated to contrasting groups of sectors. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'In 1980, however', and 'meanwhile' are used to connect ideas, though referencing is occasionally a little mechanical, as seen with phrases like 'followed same path as retail section'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, ensuring the overall arrangement remains coherent and easy to follow from start to finish.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The lexical resource is adequate for the task, providing a sufficient range of vocabulary to describe trends and economic sectors, such as 'employemnet', 'economical sectors', 'opprtunities', and 'outnumbering'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('employemnet', 'Manufactring', 'opprtunities', 'togethher') and some awkward word choices ('economical' instead of 'economic', 'Healthcare centre' instead of 'Healthcare sector'). These errors indicate an attempt to use less common vocabulary with some inaccuracies that slightly hinder precision, though they do not impede overall communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating control over narrative tenses suitable for past data. There are some grammatical errors and awkward phrasing, such as missing articles ('trailing behind by both retail and healthcare sector', 'taking highest position'), preposition errors ('reached at the peak'), and minor agreement issues. However, these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede communication, allowing the structure of the report to remain clear and understandable.

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