Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-01

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 given bar chart illustrates the number of US households, across five different income categories in 2007, 2011 and 2015.

Overall, it can be seen that the number of households earning $100,000 or more was the highest in 2015, while the $75,000–$99,999 income group had the fewest households. Moreover, the number of households in the middle-income groups remained same over the period.

Looking at the lower income and middle income groups, the number of households earning less than $25,000 rose slightly from 25 millions in 2007 to 28 millions in 2015. Similarly, income group of $25,000-$49,999 category have increased from 27 millions to 29 million during the same period. By contrast, the figures for $50,000-$74,999 remained stable in all years.

Turning to higher income category, $75,000-$99,999 remained with fewest households. By contrast, in highest income group, there were fluctuations over the period and and reached at 37 millions households in 2015.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by reporting data across the five categories and years, and it includes a clear overview. However, some aspects are under-developed or contain inaccuracies relative to the prompt. For instance, the overview incorrectly claims that the $75,000–$99,999 group had the fewest households in 2015, whereas it had 15 million compared to other lower figures in earlier years, and the highest income figure for 2015 is misreported in the body paragraphs as '37 millions' instead of approximately 33.5 million. Furthermore, some data points lack precision, such as writing '25 millions' instead of 25 million. These inaccuracies and limited extension of trends place the response at this level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The text maintains a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, overview, and specific body paragraphs logically. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader through the data, such as 'Overall', 'Looking at', and 'By contrast'. However, referencing and progression are occasionally faulty, as seen in the slightly repetitive phrasing ('Turning to higher income category, $75,000-$99,999 remained with fewest households. By contrast, in highest income group...'). To reach a higher band, the student should ensure smoother transitions between ideas and avoid mechanical repetition of sentence openings while maintaining precise logical progression throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully attempting less common items and functional phrases like 'fluctuations over the period' and 'remain stable'. However, there are noticeable word choice and pluralisation inaccuracies, such as '25 millions' (should be '25 million') and 'income group of $25,000-$49,999 category have increased' (awkward phrasing and subject-verb agreement/collocation slips). Spelling and word choice are generally sufficient for the message to be communicated clearly, but minor errors prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like 'The given bar chart illustrates...' and 'while the $75,000–$99,999 income group had...'. There are some grammatical errors and awkward phrasing, such as 'remained with fewest households' (missing article and prepositional control), 'have increased' instead of 'increased', and a doubled conjunction in 'and and reached at'. Punctuation and articles also show occasional lapses. Despite these errors, the sentence structures are sufficiently varied, and the mistakes rarely impede overall communication.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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