Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-11

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 amount of top ten countries for the production and consumption of electricity broken down by all categories in 2014.

Overall, china emerged as the highest source of electricity, whereas Korea recorded the lowest figures. It is also evident that china's area and population are much more than Korea moreover if you look at the market and economy sizes of both you will notice that china market share is compered to other countries.

Regarding the highest contributors, china accounted for the largest share at 5398 billion kWh in production and 5322 billion kWh in consumption. This was followed by United States at 4099 and 3866 billion kWh in production and consumption. In stark contrast, the figure for Germany is significantly lower at just 526.6 and 582.5 in production and consumption.

Shifting focus to Korea and Germany showed a similar pattern, recording figure at just 450 to 490 and 520 to 580. Respectively the gap between the highest and the lowest categories was highly compared with china outnumbering Korea by nearly 5000 billion kWh.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the main extremes accurately: China has the highest production and consumption, while Korea is among the lowest, and you include the leading figures for China and the United States. However, the response only partially summarises the chart. The overview adds unsupported explanations about China’s population, economy and market share, which are not shown in the data. The comparison that Germany is “significantly lower” is also misleading: its consumption, at 582.5 billion kWh, is higher than its production and is above Korea’s figures. Important patterns across the other countries are largely omitted. Focus on chart-based comparisons, including the general production-consumption relationship and Germany’s exception, rather than external explanations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, moving from an introduction and overview to details about the largest and smaller figures. This gives the reader some sense of organisation. However, progression is uneven: the overview shifts into unrelated claims about population and market share, and the final paragraph repeats the focus on Korea and Germany without clearly developing a new comparison. Linking expressions such as “Regarding” and “Shifting focus” help signal sections, but “moreover” and “Respectively” are not used effectively, and the latter is awkwardly separated from the sentence it relates to. Group the data into clear comparisons and use references and transitions that make each paragraph’s purpose explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant chart vocabulary, including “production,” “consumption,” “accounted for,” “contributors” and “in stark contrast.” These choices show an attempt to describe data rather than rely only on basic terms. However, several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or unclear, such as “amount of top ten countries,” “china’s area,” “market share is compered,” and “the gap … was highly compared.” “Categories” is also imprecise for countries. Spelling and capitalisation errors, including “china” and “compered,” reduce control. Choose precise terms such as “electricity output,” “figures,” and “exceeded,” and avoid vocabulary about economic causes that the chart does not provide.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple and more complex sentences, including a contrast clause with “whereas” and a comparison introduced by “with.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors sometimes make relationships difficult to follow. For example, “china's area and population are much more than Korea” has an incomplete comparison structure, while “Shifting focus to Korea and Germany showed” lacks a clear grammatical subject. The sentence beginning “It is also evident” runs several ideas together, and the final “Respectively” is punctuated as a fragment. Check subject-verb structure, sentence boundaries and punctuation, and build comparisons in complete forms, such as “China’s figures were nearly 5,000 billion kWh higher than Korea’s.”

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