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. While the table provides the rate of satisfaction of library users. Library users are those who visit the library.

Overall data of full time undergraduate constitute majority and minority data of academic staff. With regard to the acceptance level, helpfulness of staff showed most the postive ratings in addition to this availability of journals records the highest number of dissatisfaction.

According to the pie chart, 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 6.0

The response successfully covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features from both the pie chart and the table. An overview is provided, noting that full-time undergraduates constitute the majority and academic staff the minority, alongside satisfaction highlights. Data is accurately reported, such as the 44% for full-time undergraduates and 65% satisfaction for library opening hours. However, there are minor inaccuracies in detail reporting; for instance, the student states that availability of journals recorded the highest number of dissatisfaction at 20%, whereas the table actually shows helpfulness of staff had 0% and opening hours 0%, while journals was indeed the highest at 20%. The information is adequately selected and compared, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7, though further extension of comparisons would elevate the response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response exhibits a clear overall logical arrangement with an introductory paragraph, an overview, and separate body paragraphs dedicated to the chart and the table respectively. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or faulty, such as starting sentences with dangling transitions like 'With regard to the acceptance level' or 'As for the second table'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and some sentences feel disjointed rather than flowing naturally from one to the next. Overall progression is present, but cohesion lacks the flexibility required for higher bands, placing it firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'illustrates', 'constitute', 'minority', and 'proportion'. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary, though this is sometimes accompanied by word-choice or collocation errors, such as 'acceptance level' instead of 'satisfaction level', 'rate of part time graduates' instead of 'proportion of part-time postgraduates', and 'slight low'. Spelling is generally accurate, and vocabulary errors do not impede communication, allowing the reader to easily follow the data points being reported.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and introductory prepositional phrases. However, grammatical errors are frequent throughout the text. Examples include fragment sentences and awkward phrasing such as 'Library users are those who visit the library' (which is unnecessary padding), 'full time postgraduates is consist of' (incorrect passive/active mix and verb form), 'the rate of part time graduates is slight low as 16%', and '65% people are satisfied'. Punctuation and article usage also show persistent minor errors. While meaning is rarely completely obscured, the frequency of errors prevents the grammar score from reaching Band 6.

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

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