Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-17
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 different categories of library users at a university, while table provides information on user's satisfaction.
Overall, according to the pie chart the proportion of full-time undergraduat is significantly greater than full-time postgraduate, where satisfaction rate of journals is twice as much as helpfulness of staff.
To begin with, full-time undergraduate category which is 44% is marginally higher than that full-time postgraduate that is only 25% whereas, part-time postgraduate group is considerably go down. In addition, there is only a 1-percentage-point difference between distance learning and academic staff at 8% and 7% respectively.
Turning to the table, it can seen that helpfulness of staff recieves the higher response with 95%, users reporting as ''very satisfied", and 5% as "fairly satisfied" followed by library opening hours that is 65% "very satisfied" and 35% "fairly satisfied. Neither categories recieves any dissatisfaction response. Similarly, availability of books is roughly equal to availability of journals with 5% difference in both "highly satisfied" and "moderately satisfied".
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response successfully covers both parts of the visual data, reporting the main features of the pie chart and the table. An overview is provided, noting the prominence of full-time undergraduates in the chart and making a comparison regarding satisfaction rates. However, the overview contains a flawed comparison ("where satisfaction rate of journals is twice as much as helpfulness of staff"), which mixes data categories inaccurately. Key features such as the 44% for full-time undergraduates and the 95% very satisfied for staff helpfulness are correctly identified and contrasted. While some ideas are extended, the overall development is slightly marred by inaccurate cross-data comparisons in the introductory summary.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The response is logically organized with a clear overall progression. It begins with an introduction, moves to an overview paragraph, details the pie chart, and concludes with an analysis of the table. Cohesive devices such as "To begin with", "whereas", "In addition", and "Turning to the table" are used to structure the text effectively, although some referencing is slightly clunky ("that full-time postgraduate"). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different parts of the visual data. The progression of ideas is generally clear, though minor cohesion slips prevent a higher band score.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms like "proportion", "marginally higher", and "considerably". However, there are several lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as "recieves" (spelling error), "the higher response" instead of "the highest response", and referring to satisfaction percentages as "highly satisfied" when the table states "very satisfied". These inaccuracies in word choice and spelling prevent the response from achieving a higher band, though communication is not impeded.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and comparative structures (e.g., "full-time undergraduate category which is 44% is marginally higher than that full-time postgraduate that is only 25%"). However, there are frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ("while table provides"), incorrect verb forms ("it can seen that"), and punctuation slips. Furthermore, some complex structures are overly convoluted or grammatically incomplete. These errors require some effort from the reader but do not completely obscure the meaning.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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