Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The bar chart illustrates the number of households in millions by their yearly income in United Staes in the years 2007, 2011 and 2015.

Overall, the people who earn the most had largest number of households in both 2007 and 2015 while the category having the income between $25,000-$49,999 had the highest households in 2011. The category of individuals who earned $75,000-$99,999 had the lowest number of households throughout the three years.

In 2007, people who earned the yearly income of $100,000 or more had 29 million households followed by the categories of individuals who earned $25,000-$49,999 and less than $25,000 at 27 million households and 25 million households respectively. These numbers reversed in 2011 where the latter categories had 30 millions and 28 millions household while the former group reduced to 27 millions households. In 2015, the number of household by the category earning $100,000 or more had remarkably increased and reached 33 million households while the other two categories ( less than $25,000 and $25,000 - $49,999) decreased slightly and had the 26 million households and 27 million households respectively.

The number of households by the people who were in the $50,000-$74,999 and $75,000-$99,999 category of yearly income was similar throughout the three years at approximately 22 millions households and 15 millions households respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by providing an overview and selecting main features and comparisons from the chart. An appropriate overview is presented in the second paragraph, capturing broad patterns such as the highest and lowest earning categories. However, some aspects of the task are handled unevenly or with minor factual inaccuracies. For instance, the statement that the category earning $100,000 or more had the largest number of households in 2007 is accurate (around 29.5 million), but the detailed data citations in the third paragraph contain some minor misreadings of the chart values and a slight overgeneralisation or confusion regarding specific years and categories. Furthermore, while the general trends are captured, certain comparisons between categories could be developed more fully and precisely to reach a higher level of performance.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The report demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at logical organisation. Information is grouped reasonably into paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs detailing specific income brackets. Cohesive devices are employed to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'In 2007', and 'respectively', contributing to a clear progression of information. However, referencing and cohesion occasionally feel somewhat mechanical or slightly repetitive, and paragraph referencing could be smoother. The half-band strength lies in the successful overarching logical structure and clear signposting of time periods, though the management of cohesive ties prevents it from achieving a higher score.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, successfully conveying numerical data and trends using terms such as 'illustrates', 'category', 'significantly', and 'approximately'. The student attempts less common vocabulary and phraseology, such as 'remarkably increased' and 'yearly income'. However, there are notable word choice and phrasing inaccuracies, such as writing 'United Staes' (spelling), 'highest households' instead of 'highest number of households', and minor awkwardness in referring to 'the number of household by the category'. These lexical slips and occasional spelling errors do not impede communication, but they restrict the range and precision of the response to this level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and temporal prepositional phrases to link data across years. There is control over basic structures, and punctuation is generally handled adequately. However, there are a number of grammatical errors throughout the text, including pluralisation and article issues (e.g., 'had largest number', 'reached 33 million households', 'millions households' instead of 'million households'), as well as minor subject-verb agreement slips. These errors persist alongside correct structures, but they rarely impede overall communication or obscure the meaning of the report.

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