Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-08-13

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The bar chart below shows the top ten countries for the production and consumption of electricity in 2014.

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The bar chart below illustrates the information about the production and consumption of electricity by top ten countries in 2024.

Overall, it is evident from the chart that China were the most popular country for the production and consumption of electricity throughout the year 2014, whereas Korea were the least.

Furthermore, all countries experienced a steady increase in production and use of electricity over the year. Although United states rose consistently with almost 4,099 billion kWh and use of electricity also grew modestly over the year with almost 3,866 billion kWh.

On the other hand, all other countries including Canada, France, and Brazil followed a similar upward trend in both category of production and consumption. In contrast, Russia shows same ratio in both production and consumption of electricity over the year.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, which significantly impacts the task achievement score. Furthermore, the content is inaccurate; the prompt specifies the year 2014, but the introduction incorrectly cites 2024. While the report attempts to identify main features, the analysis is superficial and lacks sufficient data support. The claim that all countries experienced a 'steady increase' is not supported by the static nature of a single-year chart, which shows levels rather than trends over time. The response lacks a clear, data-driven comparison of the top ten countries, failing to highlight the most significant differences or groupings effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into short paragraphs, which provides a basic structure. However, the progression of ideas is weak. The use of cohesive devices is limited and sometimes mechanical, such as the repetitive use of 'Furthermore' and 'On the other hand'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and the logical flow between sentences is hindered by the lack of specific data to support the claims made. The paragraphing is present but does not effectively group the information to provide a clear overview or detailed comparison, resulting in a disjointed reading experience.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but remains quite basic and repetitive. Phrases like 'most popular country' are inappropriate for describing electricity production, where 'leading producer' would be more accurate. There is a lack of variety in reporting verbs and descriptive language. Some word choices are imprecise, such as 'both category of production', which contains a grammatical error and lacks the necessary precision for an academic report. To improve, the student should incorporate more topic-specific terminology related to energy statistics and data comparison.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains several grammatical errors that affect clarity. Subject-verb agreement is inconsistent, for example, 'China were' and 'Korea were' (should be 'was'). There are also issues with article usage and sentence structure, such as 'Although United states rose consistently...', which is a sentence fragment. While there is an attempt to use complex structures, they are often faulty or incorrectly punctuated. The frequent errors in basic grammar and the lack of complex sentence control limit the score in this criterion.

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.