Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-24

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 illustrates the top ten countries for the generation and use of electricity in 2014.

Overall, China has the highest production and consumption of electricity other hand, korea, rep. has lowest generating and use of electricity and only in Germany electricity consumption is more than electricity production.

China has the top first country it produced 5,398 billion kwh and consumed 5,322 billion kwh and then at second number United States stand with 4,099 billion kwh generated and 3,866 billion kwh used other side korea, rep. generated 485.1 billion kwh and consumed 449.5 billion kwh which is least electricity produced and consumed in all ten countries.

Germany produced 526.6 billion kwh and consumed 582.5 billion kwh that only one country who consume more electricity then production and other countries like Russia, Japan, India, Canada, France and Brazil produces electricity between 530 billion kwh and 1,060 billion kwh and consumed between 450 billion kwh and 1,040 billion kwh.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response covers all parts of the task well by identifying the top ten countries and making relevant comparisons between electricity production and consumption. The student selects key data points, such as China and the United States leading the chart, and correctly highlights Germany as the only country where consumption exceeds production. However, there are some minor inaccuracies in expression and referencing of ranges (e.g., grouping several countries together rather than detailing specific figures), and the overview could be more precisely integrated. Overall, the main features of the visual data are adequately reported, aligning well with a Band 6.0 standard.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement, being divided into a clear introduction, overview, and body paragraphs. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different parts of the data. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the use of linking phrases like "other hand" and "other side" is inaccurate and awkward. Referencing between sentences can also be clunky, and punctuation errors (such as run-on sentences) occasionally disrupt the logical flow between ideas, placing this criterion at a Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms related to the prompt such as "generation," "consumption," and "produced." Attempts at less common vocabulary are made, but they are often marred by word choice and collocation errors, such as "stand with" instead of "stood at" or "lowest generating and use." There are also issues with capitalization and spelling of proper nouns like "korea, rep." While these errors do not impede overall communication, they prevent the writing from achieving a higher score, making a Band 5.5 appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, though control over complex structures is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors, including run-on sentences (e.g., linking multiple independent clauses with commas or "and" without proper stops), missing articles, and awkward verb tense/form shifts (e.g., switching between "has" and "stand"). Despite these errors, meaning is generally conveyed and communication is rarely completely impeded, which corresponds to a Band 5.0.

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.