Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-16

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 results of a survey of library users at a university. It includes categories and the rate of satisfaction of library users. Library users are those who visit the library.

It clearly shows the majority and minority data of visitors. Firstly, the full time undergraduates accounts for the largest population at 44%. Whereas, full time postgraduates is consist of 25% which is also a good percentage. But the rate of part time graduates is slight low as 16%. However, the percentage of online learning and academic staff represent 8% and 7% respectively.

As for the second table, 65% people are satisfied with the opening time and 35% are fairly satisfied and none are not satisfied. In terms of helpfulness of staff, almost everyone is satisfied only 5% are not happy and no one showed dissatisfaction. On the other hand, the satisfaction level of availability of books, journals and reliability of wifi has a proportion between 48 to 50%. While, the moderate acceptance level has a variance between 33 to 40%. Though, the result of dissatisfaction showed 10, 20, 19% individually.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the task by reporting both the pie chart and the table data. The main features are identified, such as the highest category being full-time undergraduates at 44% and the high satisfaction levels for opening hours and staff helpfulness. However, some of the data reporting is slightly imprecise, such as describing part-time postgraduates as 'slight low' and making overly descriptive statements like 'Library users are those who visit the library,' which adds unnecessary padding rather than data analysis. Comparisons are attempted, but the overall synthesis could be sharper. This places the response comfortably at Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is arranged into logical paragraphs, separating the introduction, the pie chart data, and the table data. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Firstly,' 'Whereas,' 'However,' and 'On the other hand.' However, some referencing and transitions are a bit mechanical or awkward, such as 'As for the second table' and '65% people.' Paragraphing is used appropriately, but overall progression and logical flow between sentences could be smoother to achieve a higher band score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases such as 'majority and minority data' and 'satisfaction level.' There are, however, several word choice and collocation errors, including 'the full time undergraduates accounts' (subject-verb agreement), 'is consist of', 'slight low' instead of slightly low, and 'moderate acceptance level.' Spelling is generally accurate, but vocabulary limitations and minor inaccuracies prevent the response from reaching Band 7.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and contrastive structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, such as 'full time undergraduates accounts' (plural/singular mismatch), 'full time postgraduates is consist of' (passive voice error), and punctuation issues. While these errors rarely impede communication entirely, they occur with enough frequency to prevent the grammar score from rising above Band 5.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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