Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-13
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 provided graph compares the number of family by their yearly earning in the US in three different time frame, such as 2007, 2011, and 2015.
Overall, it is evident that comparatively few number of households earn $75,000-$99,000 in all three years. It is also clear that the highest number of the US residence earn $100,000 or more in 2007 and in 2015, however in 2011 more people earn in the scale of $25,000-$49,999.
In 2007, nearly 30 million families earn $100,000 or more anually, making it the highest figure. This was followed by the income scale of $25,000-$49,999. Additionally, 25 million of people had less than $25,000 and approximately 21 millions of families had $50,000-$74,000 annual income. However, only 14 million families had income that ranges between $75,000-$99,999. Interestingly, exactly similar pattern of income can be seen in 2015. More than 30 million people earn $100,000 or more, followed by income scale of $25,000-$49,999.
On the other hand, 30 million families earn $25,000-%49,000, making it the highest figure, followed by earning less than $25,000, which stood at approximately 29 million. Meanwhile, residence with earning ranges of $50,000-$74,000 stood at just over 20 million. However, $75,000-$99,999 still remained the lowest.
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 by selecting and reporting the main features of household incomes across the three given years, making relevant comparisons such as noting that the $75,000-$99,000 bracket remained the lowest throughout. However, there are some inaccuracies in reporting the data; for instance, the text claims that in 2007 nearly 30 million families earned $100,000 or more, whereas the graph indicates a figure closer to 34 million. Additionally, the description of the 2011 data uses slightly disjointed referencing ('On the other hand...'). Nonetheless, an overview is provided, and key trends are identified, fulfilling the core requirements of Task 1. This corresponds to Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical paragraph structure, moving from an introduction to an overview and then breaking down the specific years in body paragraphs. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate 2007/2015 from 2011. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, notably with transitional phrases like 'On the other hand,' which is used inappropriately here as the data points do not represent a direct opposition or negative contrast. Referencing and cohesive devices such as 'meanwhile' are adequate but occasionally lack precision, limiting the score to Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms such as 'households', 'annual income', 'highest figure', and 'scale'. There are several word choice and collocation errors, such as 'number of family' instead of 'number of families', 'yearly earning' instead of 'yearly earnings', 'US residence' instead of 'US residents', and a typographical error '%49,000' instead of '$49,000'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success. These errors do not impede overall communication, placing the lexical performance solidly at Band 6.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'Overall, it is evident that comparatively few number of households earn...' and 'While this was followed by...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors involving subject-verb agreement and tense consistency, such as 'families earn' instead of 'families earned', 'more people earn in the scale' instead of 'more people earned in the range', and '25 million of people' instead of '25 million people'. Punctuation is generally acceptable, and meaning is rarely obscured, aligning with the Band 5.5 to 6.0 descriptors, comfortably earning a 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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