Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)
The chart provides the number of households in the US by their annual income in the year 2007, 2011 and 2015. In year 2007, about 25 million households earned less than $25,000, about 27 million households earned upto $25,000-$49,999, about 21 millions households earned around $50,000-$74,999,about 14 millions household earned around $75,000-$99,999 and about 29 millions household earned upto $100,000 or more. In the year 2011, about 29 millions hoseholds earned less than $25,000, about 30 million households earned around $25,000-$49,999, about 21 millions of households earned $50,000-$74,999, about 14 millions household earned around $75,000-$99,999 and 27 millions households earned around $100,000 or more. In the year 2015, around 28 millions households earned less than $25,000, about 29 millions household earned around $25,000-$49,999, about 21 millions households earned around $50,000-$74,999. about 15 million households earned around $75,000-$99,999, about 33 million households earned upto $100,000 or more.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response attempts to cover the data from the chart across the three specified years, mentioning figures for various income brackets. However, the student fails to provide a summary or overview of the main trends and instead lists numerous individual data points in a mechanical and repetitive fashion. Furthermore, the word count is 146 words, which falls short of the mandatory 150-word minimum requirement. This negative constraint violation, combined with the lack of an overarching summary, pulls the task achievement score down.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5
The text suffers from a major structural flaw as it is written as one single, continuous block paragraph. There is no clear paragraphing to separate the introduction, body data, and overview. While individual sentences follow a chronological progression through the years, cohesive devices are extremely repetitive, relying heavily on phrases like 'about X millions households earned'. Referencing and logical progression are hindered by the lack of structural division and poor overall arrangement.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, depending almost entirely on terms like 'households', 'earned', 'millions', and 'around'. There are also minor lexical and grammatical slips with pluralisation, such as 'millions households' instead of 'million households', and 'upto' instead of prepositions like 'between'. The range of vocabulary is barely adequate to communicate the basic figures from the chart, lacking any attempt at sophisticated or less common lexical items.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response consists almost entirely of simple repetitive clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions or presented as a run-on sequence. There is a very limited range of complex sentence structures attempted. Grammatical errors are frequent, particularly regarding pluralisation and agreement, such as 'about 29 millions hoseholds' and 'about 14 millions household'. Punctuation is also faulty, notably the use of a comma splice separating clauses in the final sentence ('...-$74,999. about 15 million households...').
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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