Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-29

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 6.0)

The bar chart illustrates the total number of people living in the houses in the US by their annual earnings in three distinct years.

Overall, there is an increase in the number of households in 2015 with an annual income of more than $100,000, whereas the households having an annual income ranging between $50,000 and $99,999 remained similar.

The households having an annual income of more than $100,000 had just under 30 million people in 2007. It decreased slightly between 25 and 30 million before reaching near 35 million in 2015, making it the largest in this year. Households with an annual earnings less than $25,000 had 25 million houses in 2007. This number rose to approximately 29 million in 2011 but declined in 2015 to around 27 million.

Similarly, the people having yearly income between $25,000 and $49,000 also increased their houses from just over 25 million in 2007 to near 30 million in 2011, before decreasing slightly in 2015. The households with annual salaries between $50,000 and $74,999 and $75,000 and $99,999 stood similar throughout the three years at around 20 million and 15 million houses.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student covers all parts of the task well, providing an overview of the main trends and selecting relevant data points to support the descriptions. For example, the writer notes the overall rise in households earning over $100,000 and the stability of those in the middle-income brackets ($50,000-$99,999). However, there is a recurring confusion in terminology throughout the response; the student frequently writes "people" or "houses" instead of "households" (e.g., writing that households "had just under 30 million people" or "increased their houses"). Despite this imprecise phrasing regarding the unit of measurement, the key comparative features of the chart are adequately reported and supported with appropriate figures.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response is logically organized with a clear overall progression. It begins with an introductory paraphrase and a concise overview paragraph, followed by two body paragraphs detailing specific income categories. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different sections of the data. Cohesive devices are employed reasonably well, with transitional phrases such as "Overall", "Similarly", and "before reaching near 35 million" guiding the reader through the data. However, referencing is occasionally imprecise due to the interchangeable use of "people", "houses", and "households", which slightly disrupts smooth cohesion, though the logical flow remains intact overall.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common functional vocabulary such as "illustrates", "annual earnings", and "declined". However, the misuse of lexical items related to the core subject matter significantly limits the score. The student repeatedly confuses "households" with "people" and "houses" (e.g., "total number of people living in the houses", "increased their houses"). These vocabulary inaccuracies show a lack of precision when describing demographic chart data, though they do not completely obscure the intended meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, utilizing subordinate clauses and participial phrases such as "before reaching near 35 million in 2015, making it the largest in this year". There is a reasonable variety of tense usage (past simple for 2007, 2011, and 2015 data). Grammatical control is generally decent, but some minor errors and awkward phrasings occur, such as "stood similar throughout the three years" (instead of "remained stable") and missing prepositions or articles. Nonetheless, these errors do not impede overall communication and the majority of simple sentences are error-free.

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