Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · 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 4.0)

The chart illustrates the number of households in the US by their annual income in three different years

Overall there are 3 different years which has gap of 4 years first one is 2007 second one is 2011 and the last one is 2015. in the year of 2015 s US household has the greatest amount of income thereafter in the year of 2011 and 2007 some household income remains the constant.

Initially the chart provides information that in these years some of US household with annual income of 75000 to 99999 dollers remains the constant while on the other side from 2007 households who had annual salary about 25000 to 49000 slightly grown up

The US household who has around more than a thousand dollers income slightly declined in the year of 2011 from 29 million to 27 million therefore it rose from 29 million to approximately 34 million household in the year of 2015 and along with those households which has less than 25000 doller annual income are grown up in the year of 2011 from 25 million to 27 million and rose remains the constant in the year of 2015 which is about 27 million

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The candidate attempts to cover the main features of the chart, noting trends across the three years for several income brackets. However, the response contains several inaccuracies and misinterpretations of the data, such as stating that 'in the year of 2015 s US household has the greatest amount of income' and confusing income categories with total income amounts. The overview is weak, failing to clearly outline the overarching trends such as the dominance of the highest and lowest brackets. While some data is reported, the lack of precision and inaccurate reporting of figures (e.g., 'more than a thousand dollers') limit the overall effectiveness.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response is divided into paragraphs, but the organization is severely hindered by a complete lack of punctuation and capitalization. Sentences run into one another without periods or commas, making the progression of ideas very difficult to follow. Cohesive devices are either missing or misused, relying on repetitive transitions like 'thereafter' and 'along with those'. Paragraphing is attempted, but internal cohesion is weak due to grammatical and structural fragmentation, leading to a breakdown in logical flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The lexical range is extremely limited and repetitive. The candidate frequently uses basic vocabulary such as 'household', 'income', 'year', and 'grown up'. There are multiple spelling errors and awkward word choices, such as 'dollers' instead of dollars, and referencing 'more than a thousand dollers income' instead of the $100,000 or more bracket. Less common vocabulary is attempted with very poor accuracy, leading to frequent strain for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical range is very limited, consisting mostly of poorly constructed complex or run-on sentences. There is a complete absence of standard punctuation, including missing full stops and capital letters throughout the text. Numerous basic grammatical errors are present, such as 'some household income remains' (subject-verb agreement), 'households who had annual salary about' (preposition/relative clause errors), and tense inconsistencies. These frequent errors severely impede communication.

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