Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-18
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The charts below show the average percentages in typical meals of three types of nutrients, all of which may be unhealthy if eaten too much.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The standard percentage of three nutrients in typical meals that can cause sickness if overconsumed are illustrated in a pie chart.
If we analysed the chart, we can see overall that sodium is taken the most with food and people have it mostly in dinner. it is also taken the least in the morning and at noon among the others.
According to the chart, Sodium is consumed the highest amount at dinnertime which makes up 43% of the meal. On the other hand, people take it the least and in same amount during breakfast and snacks time. The lunch hour falls in the middle trend in case of sodium intake. the trend is similar for saturated fat even though it is taken 6% less than sodium at dinnertime. it is 26% for lunchtime which keeps it in the middle position just as sodium. On the other hand, added sugars show a sudden swap in the trend. Added sugars makes up 42% of breakfast which is just 1% less than the sodium intake at dinnertime. The lunch follows with 19% while it is increased by 4% at night. Sugar is taken the least when people are having snacks.
In conclusion, the highest amount of sugar intake at breakfast and the highest amount of sodium intake at dinner as well as saturated fat presents the unhealthy eating trend of the chart.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student successfully identifies the main features of the four pie charts, reporting the key percentages for sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars across breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. An overview is present at the beginning and end, highlighting key extremes such as sodium peaking at dinner (43%) and added sugar peaking at breakfast (42%). However, some of the comparative descriptions are slightly confused, particularly regarding snacks and breakfast for sodium, where the text states people take it the least 'during breakfast and snacks time' (whereas breakfast is 14% and snacks is 14%, but lunch is 29%). Furthermore, there are minor inaccuracies in interpreting the data; for instance, the text claims added sugar makes up 42% of breakfast, whereas the data shows added sugar is 42% for snacks and 16% for breakfast (the student misread the chart labels). Overall, it meets the core requirements of Task 1 by selecting and reporting main features, but suffers from data misinterpretations.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organized into distinct paragraphs, starting with an introduction, moving to an overview, detailing the body points, and ending with a brief conclusion. However, cohesion between sentences is sometimes mechanical or confusing, with abrupt transitions and repetitive phrasing such as 'On the other hand' used multiple times in close proximity. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the sentence 'it is 26% for lunchtime which keeps it in the middle position just as sodium', where the pronoun linkage relies heavily on the reader tracing back multiple clauses. Paragraphing is present, but the logical progression within the main body lacks smoothness. Therefore, a Band 6 is appropriate.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'overconsumed', 'dinnertime', and 'unhealthy eating trend'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation inaccuracies, most prominently misinterpreting data labels (e.g., confusing the categories for breakfast and snacks regarding added sugar). There are also minor stylistic issues, such as 'taken the most' instead of 'consumed the most', and informal phrasing like 'at night' instead of 'at dinner'. Spelling is generally accurate, but the lexical slips and data misreadings limit the score to Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and subordinate structures (e.g., 'that can cause sickness if overconsumed', 'even though it is taken 6% less than sodium'). There are several grammatical errors and punctuation issues, including lowercase sentence beginnings ('it is also taken', 'the trend is similar', 'it is 26%', 'the lunch follows', 'added sugars makes'), missing capitalisation, and subject-verb agreement errors ('Added sugars makes up'). Despite these errors, communication is not severely impeded, and the sentence structures show a reasonable degree of complexity, supporting a Band 6 score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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