Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-26

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 chart illustrates the number of households in the United States categorized by their yearly income between the years 2007, 2011 and 2015.

Overall, households earning more than $100,000 remained dominant annual earners throughout the period. In addition, households earning below moderate saw a notable growth while moderate earners saw no change in yearly earnings.

In 2007, households earning more than $100,000 or more annually were huge over 29 millions, and figure reaching slightly around 33 million households by the year 2015. Conversely, household with moderate earners ranging from $50,000 - $74,999 and $75,000 - $99,999 were approximately equal to 20 million and to 14 millions household respectively.

In contrast, low earners with salary less than $25,000 was dominant after highest earners in the year 2007, exceding up to 25 million inhabitants and continued to rise significantly, reaching to 29 million low earners in both years 2011 and 2015. However people earning more than $25,000 - $49,999 in the year 2007 were 27 million households, increasing to nearly 30 million in 2011 and in the year 2015 it slightly decreased to 27 million households, showing inconsistency in their annual earning.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student successfully covers all parts of the task by reporting the main features and making relevant comparisons across the given years. The overview correctly identifies that households earning over $100,000 were dominant. Key figures, such as the highest earners reaching approximately 33 million by 2015 and the lowest earners rising to 29 million, are generally accurate and supported by the chart data. However, there are some minor imprecisions in data reporting and grouping, such as describing the $50,000 to $99,999 brackets somewhat vaguely as 'moderate earners' without fully differentiating the flat trend in the middle bracket from the slight increase in the $75,000–$99,999 range. Overall, the response fulfills the requirements of Task 1 well.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs detailing specific income brackets. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'In addition', 'Conversely', and 'In contrast' are employed to structure the comparison effectively. However, referencing and progression are occasionally hindered by awkward phrasing and repetitive transitional patterns (e.g., starting multiple sentences with 'In contrast' or 'In the year'). Paragraphing is used appropriately, but internal cohesion within sentences sometimes feels slightly mechanical due to grammatical awkwardness.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms such as 'categorized', 'dominant', 'annual earners', and 'inconsistency'. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary, but these are frequently marred by word choice and collocation errors, such as 'households earning below moderate saw a notable growth', 'huge over 29 millions', and 'low earners with salary less than $25,000 was dominant after highest earners'. Additionally, minor slip-ups like 'exceding' instead of 'exceeding' occur, placing this response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and comparative forms. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent throughout the text. Frequent errors include subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'household with moderate earners... were...', 'low earners... was dominant', 'people earning... were... increasing... it slightly decreased'), incorrect prepositions, and awkward phrasing that sometimes obscures meaning. Punctuation is generally acceptable, but frequent grammatical slips prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

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