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 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 bar chart illustrates the export's worth of a country in different kinds of products during two years, 2015 and 2016. Whereas the table provides data on the difference of percentage of evry trading category in comparison of both years.
Overall, most of the categories worth increased in 2016 except gems and jewellery.
An upward trend was recorded in percentage change with the highest expansion in textiles and lowest in agricultural products while the gems and jewellery ratio falls in the former year.
Export earnings by the petroluem products rose by 2 billion in 2016 from 61 billion in 2015. Engineered goods shows a significant expansion of value by climbing to 62 billion from 57 billion dollars. Likewise the textiles products also jumped from almost 17 billion to 22 billion in 2016.Agricultural products on the other hand do not show any significant change, however, the value of gems and jewellery fell by 2 billion in 2016.
The percentage change in the values of exports increased for most categories. Textiles gave the highest change of 15.24% folled by engineered goods that rise by 8.5% in 2016. 3% change in petroleum products was observed and the lowest change was of the agricultural proiudcyts by 0.81%. However the gems and jewellery price decreased in percentage by 5.18%.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by summarising the main features of the export earnings for 2015 and 2016 alongside the percentage changes. An overview is provided, noting the general upward trend except for gems and jewellery. Key comparisons are made between categories, such as highlighting textiles as having the highest expansion and agricultural products the lowest. However, there are some minor inaccuracies or contradictions in the figures reported in the body paragraphs (e.g., stating textiles jumped from 'almost 17 billion to 22 billion', which does not align with the chart data of 26 to 31.5 billion, although the percentage change given later is correct). Despite these data reading errors, the overall response fulfills the core requirements of Task 1 adequately, earning a band score of 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organized into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction, followed by an overview, body paragraphs detailing the chart data, and a final paragraph detailing the table data. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'An upward trend', and 'Agricultural products on the other hand'. However, referencing and transitions are sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'gems and jewellery ratio falls in the former year' and the abrupt shift between discussing absolute values in one paragraph and percentage changes in the next. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, providing a coherent overall arrangement, which fits the descriptor for Band 6.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting less common items such as 'expansion', 'significant', and 'upward trend'. However, there are several lexical errors, spelling mistakes, and awkward word choices throughout the text, including 'export's worth' instead of 'value of exports', 'evry' instead of 'every', 'petroluem' instead of 'petroleum', 'folled' instead of 'followed', and 'proiudcyts' instead of 'products'. These errors reflect a Band 5 to 6 level, but because communication is not severely impeded and the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the general message, a band score of 6.0 is appropriate.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and introductory prepositional phrases. However, there are numerous grammatical and mechanical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('Engineered goods shows', 'textiles products also jumped'), incorrect prepositions ('difference of percentage', 'in comparison of'), and spelling/typographical errors. While complex structures are attempted, they are frequently flawed. The errors occasionally cause minor hesitation for the reader but do not completely obscure the meaning, aligning well with the Band 5 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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