Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-13

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 line graph depicts employment figures for four fields in the United States economy from 1960 to 2020. The job markets in manufacturing and agriculture declined throughout the years. The healthcare industry had the most jobs in the period discussed. The retail industry employed the most people and is growing.

Initially, the manufacturing sector performed best and had the most workers. It continued to grow for two decades; afterwards, it declined gradually. In the beginning, retail industries had fewer jobs, but they grew steadily. Finally, it had more than 15 million jobs alone.

In 1960, the healthcare department had very few workers, even fewer than half a million. However, the situation changed fast, and it grew more rapidly than any other field. In the United States, the agricultural sector continued to decline throughout the years. It had only around 2 million workers in 2020.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify several relevant trends, including manufacturing’s rise to a peak before falling, retail’s growth, and agriculture’s decline. However, the overview contains important inaccuracies: healthcare did not have the most jobs throughout the period; it rose from about 2 million to 16 million and only reached the joint-highest level in 2020. Retail also did not employ the most people across the whole period. The claim that healthcare began with “even fewer than half a million” is far below the chart’s figure of about 2 million. The response is also six words below the required minimum. To strengthen the report, give a precise overview of the changing rankings and support it with accurate figures for all four sectors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction and overview are followed by details about manufacturing and retail, then healthcare and agriculture. This makes the main trends reasonably easy to follow. Some links between ideas are less clear, however. The overview says manufacturing and agriculture declined “throughout the years,” although manufacturing first rose, and the next sentence shifts to healthcare without clarifying the comparison. “Finally” is also used to introduce retail’s endpoint, which can suggest a final stage in a sequence rather than a comparison. Use a more systematic structure, such as grouping the sectors that rose overall and those that fell, and connect each trend to its relevant dates and figures.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of task-related vocabulary, including “employment figures,” “declined gradually,” “grew steadily,” and “more rapidly.” These expressions help communicate broad trends, and the meaning is generally clear. Some choices are imprecise or unnatural for describing a graph: “performed best” is vague, “healthcare department” is not the usual name for an economic sector, and “retail industries” is an awkward plural form. “The retail industry employed the most people” also overstates the data, so precise wording matters as well as variety. Prefer standard sector labels and trend language, such as “manufacturing employment peaked” or “healthcare jobs increased substantially,” while avoiding claims that the figures do not support.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and more developed sentence forms, and most sentences are grammatically clear. Past-tense forms such as “continued to grow” and “grew more rapidly” are generally appropriate for the period shown. Some sentence construction and punctuation choices need attention. In “It continued to grow for two decades; afterwards, it declined gradually,” the semicolon is possible, but a full stop or a clearer linking phrase would make the progression easier to read. “Finally, it had more than 15 million jobs alone” is also structurally understandable but awkwardly arranged. Aim to vary sentence patterns while keeping comparisons explicit—for example, state the sector, its figure, and the year in a complete, direct clause.

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