Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-07

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 4.0)

The Bar Chart illustrates the number of households in the US through their annual income from 2007 to 2011 and 2015. Overall, Household earning $100,000

or more showed the significant increase and become the largest income group in 2015. In addition, the number of household earning

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

The response identifies the chart’s subject and offers a relevant overall observation: households earning $100,000 or more increased and became the largest group in 2015. However, it stops after the unfinished phrase “the number of household earning,” so it does not report the other main trends or make meaningful comparisons across the income bands and years. The overview is therefore only partial, and there is almost no supporting data. The response also falls well short of the required 150 words, leaving the task minimally addressed. To improve, complete the overview and describe several key figures—for example, the high-income group’s rise from about 29.5 million to 33.5 million, alongside the broadly stable middle-income groups.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

There is a basic attempt to organise the response: it begins by introducing the chart and then signals an overview with “Overall” and “In addition.” These markers show some awareness of how to structure a Task 1 report. However, the response ends mid-sentence, so the second point is not completed and there is no developed progression from overview to comparisons or details. The linking phrase “In addition” cannot connect a complete idea because the clause that follows is unfinished. Use a clear sequence of an introduction, an overview, and one or two detail paragraphs, with each paragraph containing complete, logically connected information.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The response uses some relevant chart vocabulary, including “illustrates,” “number of households,” “annual income,” and “income group.” These choices make the topic recognisable, and “significant increase” attempts to describe a trend. However, the range is very limited because the response is so brief, and some phrasing is imprecise or repetitive: “through their annual income” is not a natural way to describe categories, while “Household earning” is an awkward form. The unfinished final phrase also leaves the intended meaning unclear. Build a wider set of accurate reporting expressions, such as “the figure for,” “rose to,” “remained stable,” and “accounted for,” and use the income categories consistently.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts a compound sentence in the overview, and its basic meaning is partly understandable. However, grammatical control is uneven. In “Household earning $100,000 or more showed the significant increase and become the largest income group,” the subject should be plural or recast as “the number of households,” the article before “significant increase” is inappropriate, and “become” does not match the past-time reporting. “The number of household earning” is also incomplete and has a singular/plural mismatch. Most of the response consists of simple structures, so there is little evidence of a wider range. Practise complete past-tense sentences and check agreement, articles, and plural forms before finishing.

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