Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-10

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 line graph illustrates the amount of jobs in the US economy of four sectors during the period 1960 to 2020.

Overall, the four job sectors including manufacturing, retail, agriculture, and healthcare observed significant trends along the time period. Among them manufacturing was the highest demanding job throughout the session.

In 1960, highest jobs were reported 15 millions in the manufacturing sector. The trends went higher till 1980's and the gradually decreased. After that the retail and healthcare were proportionally increased throughout the period. It had been started around 2 to 5 millions and ended approximately 16 millions, in 1960 and 2020, respectively. Alternately, Agriculture sector observed drastically reduction on its trends. It went around

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You identify the four sectors and include a broad overview, but the response reports only a small part of the graph and does not complete the agriculture description. The claim that manufacturing was the highest throughout is inaccurate: by 2020, retail and healthcare were both at about 16 million jobs, above manufacturing at roughly 13 million. You also combine retail and healthcare as if both rose from 2–5 million to 16 million, although retail began at about 6 million and reached 10 million by 1980, while healthcare rose from about 2 million. The response is 115 words, below the required 150. To address the task more fully, give a clear overview of the changing rankings and report key figures for all four sectors across the period.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some basic organisation: an opening sentence is followed by an overview and then a paragraph describing trends. Time markers such as “In 1960” and “After that” help the reader follow the account. However, progression is limited because several series are grouped together without clearly distinguishing their movements, and the final sentence stops at “It went around,” leaving the agriculture trend unfinished. “Alternately” does not clearly signal the intended contrast, while “It” has an unclear reference. Use separate, logically ordered comparisons—for example, manufacturing and retail first, then healthcare and agriculture—and complete each point so the paragraph develops from start to finish.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant chart vocabulary, including “sector,” “period,” “increased,” and “decreased,” and the main topic remains understandable. However, several choices are unnatural or imprecise: “amount of jobs” would be better expressed as “number of jobs,” “highest demanding job” does not accurately describe the largest employment sector, and “observed significant trends” is vague. “Proportionally increased” is also unsuitable because the graph shows numbers, not proportions. The phrase “drastically reduction on its trends” makes the agriculture description difficult to interpret. Aim for precise reporting language such as “rose steadily,” “declined,” and “employment in agriculture,” and use verbs that accurately describe the data.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response includes some simple and compound sentence forms, and the opening sentence communicates the topic clearly. However, grammatical errors are frequent enough to make several statements awkward or unclear. For example, “manufacturing was the highest demanding job” has an incorrect construction, and “The trends went higher till 1980's and the gradually decreased” contains problems with the subject, article, and adverb placement. In “It had been started around 2 to 5 millions,” the passive form is inappropriate and the plural after a number is incorrect. The final sentence is incomplete. Practise forming accurate comparisons with clear subjects and verbs, and check tense, articles, singular/plural forms, and sentence completion.

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