Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-01
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)
The bar chart illustrates the proportion of families who owned and rented their homes in England and Wales from 1918 to 2011.
Overll, there was a significant shift from renting to ownership over the years, with ownership steadily increasing and suprassing renting by 1981.
In 1981, vast majority of household lived in rented accommadation about 78%, while rougly 22% lived in their owned houses. The same paatren followed in 1939 and 1953, with slight growth in homeownership. However, in 1961, the rented homes steadily fell to 59% and the homeownership had increased to 40%. Additionally, by 1971, owned household neraly reached to 50%, making equal with renting.
The trend continued and in1981, homeownesip suprassed renting from the first time about 60% and rose to 78% in 1991 while, rented housholds gradually decreased to 33%. Moreover, a homeownershop peaked in 2001 in nearly 70% and the percentage of renters declined. However, in 2011, homeownership slowly decreased to 66% while, renting became to increase again.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features and making comparisons between owned and rented accommodation from 1918 to 2011. However, some of the data points reported contain inaccuracies when compared against the visual data, such as misstating the starting figures for 1918 (stating that the vast majority lived in rented accommodation at 'about 78%', while the chart shows 77%, and confusing figures in later sentences) and minor confusion regarding the 1981 data points. The overview is present in the second paragraph, capturing the main trend of shifting from renting to ownership, but the underdeveloped details and data inaccuracies prevent the response from achieving a higher band.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response presents an overall progression and is divided into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction, moving to an overview, and then detailing specific years. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. There are awkward transitions, such as 'The same paatren followed' and repetitive use of conjunctions like 'However' and 'while'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and paragraphing could be managed more effectively to group related decades together more smoothly, showing some organizational limitations characteristic of this band level.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The writer uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'proportion', 'homeownership', and 'surpassed'. However, there are numerous noticeable spelling errors ('Overll', 'suprassing', 'accolmadation', 'rougly', 'paatren', 'neraly', 'homeownesip', 'homeownershop') and awkward word choices ('making equal with'). These lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader and restrict the score to this band, although communication of the general trends remains intact.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like time clauses ('Overll, there was a significant shift...'). However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly with verb forms, prepositions, and article usage, such as 'rented homes steadily fell', 'owned household neraly reached to 50%', 'making equal with renting', 'from the first time', and 'renting became to increase again'. These frequent errors require the reader to occasionally reread parts of the text, fitting the description of grammatical control at this level.
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.