Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-24
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 and table illustrate the change in earnings and proportions of five exporting items (petroleum products, engineered goods, gems and jewellery, agricultural andtextile items) in a country over the given period of time. The units of earned money are measured in billion dollars.
Overall, the highest money was earned through exporting petroleum products. The earning of exporting gems and jewellery decreased in 2016 as compared to 2015. While it remianed stagnant for agricultural and textile items . The percentage of textile things raised signficantly in contrast to germs and jewellery products whose earning levelled off during this given period.
In terms of earned money, petroleum items raised around 1 billion dollar from 2015 to 2016 and earned highest money of approximately 61 billion dollars among other products. Significant increase is sen in engineered good and textiles in 2016 raising around 3 billion dollars.
The change in percentage values of textile industry hit a high by 15.24% from 2015 to 2016. This was followed by engineered items with 8.5%. The percentage of germs and jewellery declined in 2016 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 | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student successfully addresses all parts of the task by reporting the main features, values, and percentage changes from the provided visual data. An overview is provided, noting that petroleum products earned the highest revenue. However, there are some factual inaccuracies in the details; for instance, the student states that the earnings 'remianed stagnant for agricultural and textile items', whereas the chart and table clearly show that agricultural products grew slightly and textiles increased significantly by 15.24%. Furthermore, the claim that gems and jewellery products levelled off contradicts the data showing a decline of 5.18%. Despite these data misinterpretations, the response covers the key categories and makes relevant comparisons, aligning well with the descriptors for Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is arranged into a logical overall structure, beginning with an introduction, followed by an overview paragraph, and then supporting body paragraphs detailing earnings and percentage changes. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'While', and 'In terms of earned money'. However, paragraphing and referencing are occasionally awkward or misleading, as seen in the second paragraph where conflicting statements are grouped together. Furthermore, the misuse of cohesive links like 'While it remained stagnant for agricultural and textile items' disrupts logical progression because the data for textiles showed massive growth. Overall, the essay demonstrates a coherent arrangement, but faulty cohesion and minor referencing errors place it firmly at Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common vocabulary items such as 'stagnant', 'significantly', and 'proportions'. However, there are several spelling and word-choice errors that detract from the quality, including 'remianed', 'raised' instead of 'rose', 'textile things', and 'germs' instead of 'gems'. Some phrases are repetitive or slightly unnatural, such as 'earned highest money'. While the lexical resource is sufficient to convey the general meaning, the frequency of spelling slips and lexical inaccuracies prevents the response from achieving a higher band score, making Band 5.5 a fair assessment.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like 'While it remained stagnant...' and 'In terms of earned money...'. However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text. Examples include tense and word form issues ('textile things raised signficantly', 'petroleum items raised around 1 billion dollar', 'Significant increase is sen in engineered good'). Additionally, prepositional and article errors are present. Although these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur with enough frequency to restrict the score to Band 5.5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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