Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-19
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 charts illustrates the number of households in the US by their annual income in 2007, 2011 and 2015.
Overall, their annual $[redacted phone] or more income had highest number of households in three years while in between $75000-$99999 income had lowest numbers.
In 2007, less than $25000 income had around 25 milions of households folloewd by just below 30 millions in 2011 and above 25 millions in 2015. Annual $25000-$49999 had approximately 27 millions households in 2007 while 30 millions and 28 millions accounted in order to 2011 and 2015. Approximately 21 millions of households had in between $50000 to $74999 annual income in 2007, with this income consisted 21 millions in 2011 and 2015.
Annualy $75000-$99999 income marked up around 14 millions households in 2007 whereases 13 millions in 2011 and 15 millions in 2015 which is lowest as comapre to other annual income. Highest contributed $[redacted phone] or more income had around 29 millions households in 2007 while 27 millions in 2011 and 33 millions in 2015.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student attempts to address all parts of the task by reporting figures from the three given years, meeting the minimum length requirement. However, the overview is weak and confused, stating that the $100,000 or more income category had the highest number of households in all three years (which is inaccurate for 2011, where it was surpassed by other brackets). Furthermore, the body paragraphs slip into a mechanical list-like recitation of individual numbers rather than effectively summarising the main features and making relevant comparisons. Data reporting contains minor inaccuracies compared to the source chart, such as misstating the 2011 figure for the $75,000-$99,999 group as 13 million instead of approximately 14 million. Overall, the response meets some criteria of Task Achievement but lacks adequate data synthesis and clear overview features.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organised into logical paragraphs, starting with an introduction, moving to an overview, and splitting the data into manageable groups. However, progression within paragraphs is heavily hindered by awkward mechanical phrasing and repetitive structures (e.g., constantly repeating 'income had around X millions of households'). Cohesive devices are used minimally and sometimes inappropriately, such as 'whereases' or 'with this income consisted'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and paragraphing could be improved to better group the comparisons. While there is an overall coherent arrangement, the awkward mechanical cohesion limits the score to a Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple terms like 'income', 'households', and 'millions'. There are noticeable lexical and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'charts' instead of 'chart', 'milions', 'folloewd', 'Annualy', 'whereases', and 'comapre'. Attempts to use more complex vocabulary result in unnatural collocations, such as 'Highest contributed $100000 or more income'. The range of vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, but the frequency of spelling and word-choice errors places it firmly in the Band 5.0 range.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical control is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with verb forms, prepositions, and sentence fragments or awkward phrasing (e.g., 'Approximately 21 millions of households had in between $50000 to $74999 annual income... with this income consisted 21 millions'). Articles are frequently missing or misused (e.g., 'had highest number', 'as comapre to other annual income'). While some basic sentences are clear, the accumulation of structural inaccuracies and awkward syntax causes some difficulty for the reader and prevents the writing from reaching a Band 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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