Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-02

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 graph illustrates the number of houses in the United States by their yearly salary in 2007, 2011 and 2015.

Overall, in 2015, annual income was recorded at its highest, while in 2007 and 2011 the number of households was equal.

To begin with, in 2011, houses less than $25,000 made up almost 30 million, while in 2007 and 2015 they were 25 and 28 million, respectively. Moreover, in three years, $75,000-$99,999 had remained stable at almost 15 million, while $50,000-$49,999 also showed no change over three years.

In 2007, $100,000 or more annual income had approximately 30 million; meanwhile, it declined in 2011 at around 28 million and in 2015 dramatically increased to almost 33 million.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the task only partially, failing to meet the minimum word count requirement of 150 words by stopping at 118 words. While you attempted to summarize the chart by highlighting some figures and trends, the selection of data is incomplete and contains inaccuracies. For instance, you claimed that 'in 2007 and 2011 the number of households was equal' in the overall statement, which is incorrect, and you mislabeled an income bracket as '$50,000-$49,999'. Key data points are missing or under-developed, and the lack of sufficient length prevents a fully rounded comparison of all income categories across the three years.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

Your writing shows some organization with a basic overall structure, including an introduction and paragraph breaks. However, there is no clear overall progression, and cohesive devices are sometimes faulty or repetitive. Transition phrases like 'To begin with' and 'Moreover' are used mechanically, and referencing across sentences is occasionally unclear. To reach a higher band, ensure that your ideas flow logically from one sentence to the next and that paragraphs are structured more cohesively to guide the reader through the data smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You utilized an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'illustrates', 'annual income', 'stable', and 'dramatically increased'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward phrasing, such as writing 'houses less than $25,000' instead of 'households', and the numerical error '$50,000-$49,999'. These errors do not entirely impede communication, but they reflect a limited and sometimes imprecise command of vocabulary. To improve, focus on precise word choice and accurate collocation when describing statistical data.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You demonstrated a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures with relative clauses and subordinate clauses. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing articles or prepositions and slightly awkward phrasing like '$100,000 or more annual income had approximately 30 million' where the subject and object do not align logically. Nevertheless, these grammatical errors rarely impede communication, allowing your general meaning to get across. Working on sentence clarity and subject-verb agreement will help you achieve greater accuracy.

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

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