Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-14
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 three charts below indicate the avarage percentages of the three nutrients: Sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars in typical meals consumed across the United States. Each chart is split into four parts: breaksfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
For both Sodium and saturated fat we can see that the highest percentage is found in the dinner meal (a meal that is typically bigger than the rest). Sodium at 43% and saturated fat at 37%. It must also be the healthiest giving that it has a small amount of added sugar, at only 23%. The meal that has the smallest percentage across all three nutrient's charts is: breakfast (14% for Sodium, 16% in both saturated fat and added sugar). Lunch is shown to take around a quarter of the chart on avarge for all three nutrients as well. The lunch meal has: 29% Sodium, 26% saturated fat, and 19% added sugar. Least surprising is snacks, a guilty pleasure for most people, that has a good 42% of added sugar. Not much for Sodium and saturated fat as they only are 14% and 21% respectevely.
On avarage the perecentages retrospectively support that each meal has more nutrients as the meal gets biggers (breakfast > lunch > dinner) of course excluding snacks that are known to have high amounts of added sugars.
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
You identify several important patterns accurately: dinner has the highest shares of sodium (43%) and saturated fat (37%), while snacks contain the most added sugar (42%). You also report the lunch figures correctly. However, the overview is not consistently reliable: breakfast is not the smallest category for every nutrient, since snacks also account for 14% of sodium, and the claim that meals contain more nutrients as they get bigger is not established by the charts. Calling dinner “the healthiest” is also unsupported, particularly as it has the highest sodium and saturated-fat shares. To strengthen the response, give a concise, neutral overview of the main contrasts and avoid conclusions about meal size or health that the data cannot demonstrate.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response has a recognisable sequence: it introduces the charts, discusses dinner and breakfast, then covers lunch and snacks before ending with a general statement. This gives the reader some overall organisation. However, the comparisons are grouped unevenly, and the final claim about nutrient percentages increasing with meal size does not follow clearly from the preceding details. Phrases such as “It must also be the healthiest” and “Least surprising” interrupt the factual progression with commentary. The colon-led lists also make the middle paragraph feel like a series of separate observations rather than a connected comparison. Organise the body by contrasting the nutrient patterns, and use clear links such as “By contrast” to show how added sugar differs from sodium and saturated fat.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
You use relevant chart vocabulary, including “percentage,” “highest,” “smallest,” and “respectively,” and the nutrient names are generally clear. However, several spelling errors—“avarage,” “breaksfast,” “respectevely,” and “perecentages”—are noticeable, while informal expressions such as “a guilty pleasure” and “Least surprising” are not well suited to an academic report. Some wording is imprecise: “more nutrients” suggests quantities rather than the percentages shown, and “the meal gets biggers” is awkward and unsupported. Aim for neutral, precise language that describes proportions, and check spelling carefully. A wider range of accurate comparison phrases would also help you report similarities and contrasts without relying on conversational commentary.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
You attempt a mixture of simple and more complex forms, and most of the figures remain understandable. However, sentence control is uneven. “Sodium at 43% and saturated fat at 37%” is a fragment rather than a complete sentence, and “It must also be the healthiest giving that it has…” joins ideas awkwardly without suitable punctuation. The final sentence, “each meal has more nutrients as the meal gets biggers,” has an unclear comparison structure and does not express the intended relationship accurately. There are also problems with possessive and plural forms in “nutrient's charts.” Build complete sentences around the data, use a clear subject and verb for each comparison, and review punctuation when joining explanations to claims.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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