Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-16
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The graph below shows the number of shops that closed and the number of new shops that opened in one country between 2011 and 2018.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Number of shop closures and openings 2011– 2018
Student answer (Band 5.0)
The line graph illustrate the information of year 2011 to 2018 where number of shop closures and openings in a country shown.
To bagan with, the normal line follows the zigzag pattern from year [redacted phone] but there is sugnificant drop in year of 2015 and again in year 2016 it climbs higher and again is stable till the year of 2018.
Addtionally, the dotted line intially drop in the year of 2012 and than grows upward in the year of [redacted phone] than it is stable for year [redacted phone] and their is stighlty deop in the year of 2018.
Overall,the number of closed shops dramatically fall in year 2012 and slightly increased in year [redacted phone] and again gradually it decreases and being stable for year [redacted phone] and again it marginally fall in the year of 2018 whereas, Number of shops open follows zigzag pattern till the year of 2014 and considerably fall in the year of 2015 and again it rise significantly and bejng stable till the year og 2018 so, so number of shops opening dominates the number of shops closings in the line graph in the years of [redacted phone]
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The student attempts to cover the main trends in the line graph regarding shop openings and closures between 2011 and 2018. However, there are significant flaws in data reporting. For instance, the student states there is a 'sugnificant drop in year of 2015' for the closures, whereas the graph indicates a drastic plummet to around 600, followed by a recovery. Furthermore, the overall summary contains several inaccuracies regarding the data trends and contradicts some of the visual facts. While the general scope of the task is addressed, the inaccurate reading of specific data points and underdeveloped overview place this response at Band 5.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay is organized into an introduction, body paragraphs, and an overall summary. However, the progression of ideas is hindered by a lack of clear cohesive devices and poor paragraphing structure, particularly in the run-on final paragraph which attempts to combine the overview and detailed points. Transitions such as 'To bagan with' and 'Addtionally' are misused or misspelled. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the overall mechanical cohesion creates a disjointed reading experience. This aligns with the Band 5 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses a basic and repetitive vocabulary range suitable for the topic, such as 'drop', 'climbs higher', and 'stable'. There are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, including 'illustrate' instead of 'illustrates', 'bagan' instead of 'begin', 'sugnificant' instead of 'significant', 'intially' instead of 'initially', and 'stighlty deop' instead of 'slight drop'. These lexical errors and limitations in precision restrict the score to Band 4.5, which rounds to Band 5.0 in standard practice, though strictly fits the lower bands due to repeated strain on the reader.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, heavily relying on simple and attempted complex sentences that frequently contain errors. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues like 'The line graph illustrate' and run-on structures such as the overly long concluding sentence. Punctuation is largely neglected, missing periods between clauses. Frequent grammatical errors cause some difficulty for the reader and demonstrate a lack of control over basic sentence construction, consistent with Band 4.5/5.0 criteria.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.