Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-08-05
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The chart below shows the number of households in the US by their annual income in 2007, 2011 and 2015.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The bar chart displays the data about the number of households in United States by their annual income in 2007, 2011, and 2015.
Overall, it can be seen that the most households were those having income greater than 100,00 dollars. The least number of households were having income between 50,000 and 49,999 dollars throughout the period.
In 2007, 25 million of house were hold by group having income less than 25,000 dollars, which grew in 2011 to almost 28 million, and slightly declined to around 26 million. However, looking at the group earning between 25,000 and 49,999 dollars, which hold almost 26 million of houses in US in 2007, which increased to over 30 million in 2011, and further declined to 28 million in 2015. Moreover, people earning from 50,000 to 74,999 dollars were holding almost 20 million houses in 2007, which uniformly increased to 22 million in 2011, and remained stable in 2015.
On the other hand, individuals having income between 75,000 and 99,999 dollars held almost 14 million in 2007, fell to 13 million in 2011, and reached 15 million in 2015. Nevertheless, richest group earning above 100,000 dollars held around 29 million houses in 2007, which decreased to 27 million in 2011, and peaked at 33 million in 2015.
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 and identifies key trends across the three years. You have successfully selected and reported the main features, such as the peak in the highest income bracket and the fluctuations in the lowest. However, there is a factual error in your summary: you state the least number of households were between 50,000 and 49,999 dollars, which is a logical impossibility and likely a typo. Additionally, the overview could be more analytical by highlighting the general upward or downward shifts rather than just listing data points. Overall, the response is clear and fulfills the requirements of the prompt.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs. You use cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Moreover', and 'On the other hand' to link ideas. While the progression is generally clear, some transitions feel slightly mechanical. The referencing is mostly effective, though the phrasing '25 million of house were hold by group' is awkward and impacts the flow of information. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring smoother sentence transitions would help elevate the score in this criterion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
You have an adequate range of vocabulary to describe the data, using terms like 'declined', 'increased', 'peaked', and 'remained stable'. However, there are several instances of unnatural word choice and collocation errors, such as 'number of households were having income' instead of 'households with an income of' and '25 million of house were hold by group'. These errors occasionally impede the precision of your reporting. To reach a higher band, focus on more accurate collocations related to statistical reporting and avoid repetitive phrasing.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is good. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, particularly with articles ('in United States'), verb forms ('were hold' instead of 'were held'), and prepositions. For example, 'the most households were those having income' is grammatically incorrect. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points, they are frequent enough to limit the score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and correct article usage will significantly improve your accuracy.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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