Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-14
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The chart and table below show the results of a survey of library users at a university.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Categories of library users
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The pie chart illustrates the breakdown of library users in five distinct groups, while the tables demonstrates the library users in five categories in term of different library services.
Overall, full time undergraduates account for the highest library users, while academic staff account for the smallest percentage across the five categories. The table depicts the proportion of user satisfaction level. The helpfullness of staff and library opening hours has the highest proportion of satisfaction. Meanwhile, availability of journals and reliability of wi-fi have the most dissatisfied users.
Full time undergraduates make up the largest proportion library users at 44%, while academic staff account for smallest share at 7%. Full time postgraduates stands in the middle with 25 % user population. However, both part time graduates and distance learning (all courses) have 16% and 8% respectively.
The table decribes the customer satisfaction at the library with different services. For instance helpfulness and library opening hours recieve 95% and 65% satisfactory remarks and
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response covers all parts of the visual data by identifying the main features and making relevant comparisons. You successfully summarise the categories of library users from the pie chart, noting that full-time undergraduates account for the highest proportion at 44% while academic staff represent the smallest at 7%. You also attempt to report details from the table regarding customer satisfaction with library services, such as helpfulness and opening hours. However, the response trails off abruptly at the end ('...and') and remains incomplete regarding the full dataset in the table, which prevents a fully developed overview. Consequently, the task is only partially addressed in terms of completeness, leading to a band score of 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organized into paragraphs, beginning with a clear introduction that paraphrases the prompt. You use some transitional markers such as 'Overall', 'Meanwhile', and 'However' to guide the reader through the text. However, paragraphing is disrupted by the fragmented nature of the final paragraph, and referencing is occasionally clumsy, such as referring to the tables in the singular ('the tables demonstrates'). While there is a discernible overall structure, the lack of a complete concluding sentence and repetitive phrasing in linking ideas limit the logical flow, justifying a score of 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms such as 'proportion', 'breakdown', 'satisfaction level', and 'dissatisfied'. There are, however, several lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'highest library users' instead of 'the highest proportion of library users', 'helpfullness' with a spelling error, and 'recieve' with transposed letters. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success. The vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the intended meaning, but errors in word formation and spelling prevent it from reaching a higher band, resulting in a score of 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The pie chart illustrates the breakdown... while the tables demonstrates...' and 'Full time postgraduates stands in the middle...'. There are noticeable grammatical and punctuation errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('the tables demonstrates', 'postgraduates stands', 'helpfulness and library opening hours recieve'), missing articles ('account for smallest share'), and preposition misuse ('in term of' instead of 'in terms of'). Because these errors are frequent but do not completely impede communication, the performance aligns with a band score of 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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