Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-18

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 graph compares the number of households in us, measured in millions across five different annual income categories in 2007, 2011 and 2015.

Overall, households earning $100,000 or more showed the most notable increase over the period,becoming the largest income group by 2015.By comparison,the number of households in the remaining categories fluctuated only slightly,with the $50,000-$74,99 category remained virtually unchanged.

IN 2007,the number of households earning $100,000 or more stood at 29 million.while, the figure slightly drifted downward to approximately 28 million in 2011, it then rose substantially, to around 33 million in 2015, showing a notable upward trajectory. Conversely,income group $25,000-$49,999 and less than $25000 showed around 25-28 million, respectively, in 2007,In 2011, the figures for these two stood at approximately 29-30 million and finished around 28-29 million by 2015. The two income groups with their households earning $50,000-99,999 remained stable around 21 million and 14 million respectively, throughout the period.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student successfully covers all parts of the task by selecting and reporting the main features of the chart and making relevant comparisons. An appropriate overview is provided, highlighting the main trend that households earning $100,000 or more experienced the most notable increase to become the largest group by 2015, while other groups remained relatively stable or fluctuated slightly. Key data points are cited accurately overall, such as the peak for high-income households and the stability of the middle-income bracket around 21 million. However, there are minor inaccuracies in reporting specific figures for the lower-income groups, and one category name is slightly truncated as "$50,000-$74,99". Despite these minor issues, the task is well addressed, earning a band score of 6.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs detailing the data. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions and comparisons, such as "Overall," "By comparison," "In 2007," and "Conversely." However, there are some minor mechanical errors with punctuation and spacing around conjunctions and clauses, such as missing spaces after commas (e.g., "period,becoming" and "comparison,the") and starting a sentence with a lowercase letter in the overview ("becoming"). Paragraphing is functional and overall progression is clear, supporting a band score of 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases such as "upward trajectory," "drifted downward," and "remained virtually unchanged." Word choices are generally appropriate and communicate the meaning effectively. However, there are some typographical or minor lexical inaccuracies, such as dropping a zero in "less than $25000" and truncating income categories. While the vocabulary is sufficient to allow smooth reading, occasional inaccuracies prevent it from reaching a higher band, placing it firmly at a band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses of time and concession (e.g., "while, the figure slightly drifted downward..."). Control over grammar is fairly good, but there are several punctuation and capitalization slips, such as capitalizing "IN 2007,the" and leaving out commas or misplacing them around dependent clauses. There are also slight syntactical awkwardnesses, such as "Conversely,income group $25,000-$49,999 and less than $25000 showed around 25-28 million, respectively". These errors do not impede communication but demonstrate that simple structures are handled more reliably than complex ones, justifying a score of 6.0.

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