Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The chart below shows the value of one country’s exports in various categories during 2015 and 2016. The table shows the percentage change in each category of exports in 2016 compared with 2015.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The chart illustrates the exports of a country in varous categories of products and compares the amount in dollars ( billions ) the country has earned by exports in 2015 and 2016.

overall, the bar chart shows that the highest earnings came from exporting petroleum products in both years.the second highest are engineered products followed by gems and jewllery right in the middle. the second lowest earnings came from agricultural products and lowest amount of earnings came from textile products

the table shows us the difference of earnings between years 2015 and 2016, Firstly 60 billion dollars worth of petroleum products were exported by this particular country in 2015 and in 2016 a 3 percent increase in the value can be seen. the table further shows that exports have increased in engineered products by 8.5 percent making the earnings above 60 billion in 2016 on the other hand exports of gems and jewllery have decreased from 2015 to 2016 by 5.16 percent.agricultural exports have increased slightly from 2015 by 0.81 percent, Lastly the highest increase in exports can be seen in textile by 15.24 percent making the amount above 30 billion us dollars

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all parts of the prompt by summarising the main features of both the chart and the table, and makes relevant comparisons between categories. The student correctly identifies that petroleum products generated the highest earnings in both years, and highlights extremes such as textile products having the lowest earnings yet the highest percentage increase at 15.24 percent. Key data points, such as the 60 billion dollars for petroleum and the drop in gems and jewellery, are accurately reported. However, the overview could be more sharply defined as a single cohesive introductory summary rather than scattered statements, and some data points lack precise integration. Despite these minor limitations, the main trends are successfully extracted and presented, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptor.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response shows a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to organise information logically, starting with an introduction, moving to a general overview, and then detailing specific figures from the table. However, paragraphing is severely neglected; the entire text is essentially grouped into three block paragraphs with poor internal structuring and capitalization issues (e.g., starting sentences with lowercase letters like 'overall' and 'the table'). Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes repetitive. For instance, the transition 'Firstply' contains a spelling error, and referencing between sentences is occasionally mechanical. While the progression of ideas is discernible, the lack of punctuation control and weak paragraph formatting prevents the response from achieving a higher score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The lexical resource is adequate for the task, demonstrating a reasonable range of vocabulary related to data analysis, such as 'exports', 'earnings', 'percentage increase', and 'categories'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary items like 'engineered products' and 'agricultural products'. However, there are several spelling errors, including 'varous', 'jewllery', and typos like 'jewllery' repeated twice. Word choice is generally functional but lacks sophistication or flexibility. While these lexical errors do not severely impede communication, their frequency and the presence of basic spelling mistakes keep the score capped at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'The chart illustrates the exports of a country... and compares the amount...' and '...exports have increased in engineered products by 8.5 percent making the earnings above 60 billion in 2016'. However, grammatical control is weak. There is a complete absence of proper sentence-boundary punctuation, with multiple sentences run together using lowercase letters at the start of new clauses (e.g., 'products in both years.the second highest...'). Errors in punctuation and capitalization are systematic throughout the response, and complex structures often lack necessary commas or relative pronouns. These frequent structural errors place the response firmly in the Band 5 category.

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