Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-27

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The chart below shows the percentage of households in owned and rented accommodation in England and Wales between 1918 and 2011.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

This bar chart illustrates the comparison of households in owned and rented residence in two states of United Kingdom, England and Wales from years 1918 to 2011.

Overall, people who own thier houses are in a lesser amount as compared to those who lived in rented houses in 1918. Moreover, this all scenario started reversing throughout the period. At Last, the percentage of people owing their houses went up leaving behind the number of peoples who used to stay in rented accomodations.

First of all, there is only above 20% of families who owned thier houses but the this number start increasing and gradually reached at just above 30% in 1939 and also remain constant till 1953. The percencetage went up and matches the percentage of people rented houses for living in 1971. Afterthat, it reached at a peak of just under 70% in years 1991 and 2001, before coming back at around 65% in last year 2011.

On the hand, Rented houses trend show a reverse pattern throughout the period. Although, it starts from a peak of around 80% but eventually with the passage of time reached at around 30% in 2001. At last, it shows a slight recovery of 5% in a decade.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student successfully addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features and making relevant comparisons between households in owned and rented accommodation from 1918 to 2011. An overview is attempted in the second sentence ("Overall, people who own thier houses..."), which captures the main global trend of shifting housing tenure. Key data points are correctly cited, such as the starting percentages in 1918, the peak of owned accommodation in 1991 and 2001, and the subsequent dip in 2011. While some minor details could be more precisely integrated, the response fulfils the requirements of Task 1 effectively, warranting a solid Band 6.5 to 7.0 range.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response is generally coherent and shows a logical overall arrangement divided into logical paragraphs covering the overview, owned accommodation, and rented accommodation. However, transitional phrases and cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or awkwardly phrased, such as "At Last", "First of all", and "On the hand". Paragraphing is utilised, though the division could be smoother to enhance the progression of ideas. Referencing is mostly clear, but occasional clunky links slightly detract from the overall flow, placing this text firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting topic-specific terms like "percentage", "accommodation", "reverse pattern", and "peak". However, there are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, including "thier" instead of "their", "all scenario" instead of "entire scenario", and "accomodations". Word formation and collocation errors also occur, such as "people rented houses" instead of "people in rented houses". Despite these limitations, the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the intended meaning, aligning with Band 5.5 to 6.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as "Although, it starts from a peak of around 80% but eventually..." (which contains a minor redundancy in pairing 'although' with 'but'). There are several grammatical inaccuracies and awkward phrasings, including subject-verb agreement issues ("this number start increasing") and tense inconsistencies ("the percentage went up and matches"). Punctuation is also erratic in places. While communication is not severely impeded, the frequency of grammatical errors prevents the response from reaching a higher band.

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.