Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-28

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 5.0)

The given bar graph represents information about the proportion of the number of houses in owned and rented accomodation in England & Wales between 1918 and 2011.

Overall, the highest percent of accomodation was rented in year 1918 and meanwhile the highest proportion of households were owned in year 2001.

Over the years, people have gradually shifted from rented apartments into thier owned apartments.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You identify the chart’s subject and give a broad overview of the opposing trends, noting that renting was highest at the start and ownership reached its peak in 2001. However, the response reports almost none of the key changes or comparisons: for example, ownership rose from about 23% in 1918 to 69% in 2001 before falling to 64% in 2011, while renting followed the reverse pattern. The claim that people shifted into “their owned apartments” is also too general to substitute for describing the figures. At 64 words, the response is well below the required 150, so the task is addressed only minimally. Include a fuller overview and select several accurate data points to support it.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic, readable order: an introduction identifies the chart, an overview gives two headline points, and a final sentence summarises the general shift. “Overall” and “Over the years” help signal these stages, so the reader can follow the main idea. However, the response is extremely brief and does not develop a clear progression through the years or group the data into meaningful comparisons. The link “and meanwhile” is awkward for connecting the two peak years, and the final sentence largely repeats the overview rather than adding a specific comparison. Build a fuller sequence by describing the early period, the crossover around 1971, and the later trend, using clear links between these points.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant chart vocabulary, including “proportion,” “highest,” “households,” and “gradually shifted,” and the general meaning is understandable. However, the range is limited, with repeated reliance on “proportion” and “highest,” and some choices are imprecise: “the proportion of the number of houses” is unnecessarily wordy, while “owned apartments” does not accurately describe the chart’s category of owner-occupied accommodation. There are also spelling errors in “accomodation” and “thier.” Use concise, accurate terms such as “percentage of households,” “home ownership,” and “rented accommodation,” and vary verbs such as “rose,” “declined,” and “peaked” to report the trends precisely.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response uses several complete sentence forms, including a present-tense introduction and an overview beginning with “Overall,” and the main message remains understandable. However, the range is narrow, with little sentence variety or development. In “the highest percent of accomodation was rented in year 1918,” the article and time expression are not well controlled; a more natural structure would be “the highest proportion of households rented their homes in 1918.” The sentence beginning “Over the years” also shifts to the present perfect without clearly anchoring the trend to the chart’s past dates. Practise accurate comparative sentences in the past tense, such as “Ownership rose from 23% in 1918 to 69% in 2001, before falling slightly.”

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