Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-17

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 6.5)

The bar chart compares the earnings by the export of various types of goods in a country in two years: 2015 and 2016, while table shows the change in percentage of each type of goods that occurred in 2016.

Overall, export revenue rose in four out of five categories. Petroleum products remained the highest-earningsector in both years, whereas the textile recorded a largest percentage increase. Gems and jewelery was the only category that experienced a decline.

In 2015, petroleum products generated approximately $61 billion, rising slightly to $63 billion in 2016, with a 3% increase. Engineered goods followed closely, climbing from around $58 billion to $62 billion, which represented an 8.5% growth. These two categories continued to dominate the country's export earnings.

Textile showed the most significant relative improvement, with earnings rising from roughly $25-27 billion in 2015 to just over $30 billion in 2016, with a substantial increase of 15.24%. Agricultural products saw only a marginal ise of 0.81%, remaining at nearly $31-32 billion. In contrast, gems and jewellery was the sole sector to decline, falling from $43 to $41 billion.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response selects the main features accurately and gives a clear overview: petroleum products earned the most in both years, textiles had the largest percentage rise, and gems and jewellery was the only category to fall. The figures and directions of change are generally well supported, including the approximate values for petroleum, engineered goods and gems. It also reports the percentage changes for several categories. To make the account more complete and precise, include the 5.18% decline for gems and jewellery and the 0.81% rise for agriculture explicitly alongside their value changes. The textile figures are appropriately approximate, though the range “$25-27 billion” is less precise than a single estimate.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response is organised effectively into an introduction, an overview and two detail paragraphs. The progression from the highest-earning categories to textiles, agriculture and gems is easy to follow, and linking expressions such as “Overall,” “In contrast” and “whereas” help signal comparisons. This clear structure meets the lower-band expectations and shows some flexibility in connecting information. However, the final paragraph groups three categories without a particularly clear comparison pattern, and repeated “with” constructions make parts of the description feel slightly mechanical. A more deliberate grouping—for example, rising lower-value categories together, followed by the decline—would strengthen the progression and make the relationships between figures more explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

There is an adequate range of task-related vocabulary, including “generated,” “climbing,” “relative improvement,” “marginal” and “decline.” These choices help describe trends and comparisons, and the meaning remains clear. Some word choice and collocation are less controlled: “earnings by the export” is awkward, “the textile” is imprecise when referring to the category, and “a largest percentage increase” uses an incorrect article. “Marginal ise” appears to contain a spelling or typing error, while “jewelery” is misspelled in one instance (though “jewellery” is correct elsewhere). Aim for consistent, natural phrases such as “export earnings from” and “the largest percentage increase,” and proofread spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response uses a mix of simple and complex structures, including a subordinate clause in “while the table shows…” and participial trend descriptions such as “climbing from around $58 billion to $62 billion.” Most sentences are understandable, and punctuation generally supports the meaning. Some grammatical errors remain: the introduction needs an article in “while the table shows,” and “the textile recorded a largest percentage increase” has an article error. The phrase “gems and jewellery was” also has a subject–verb agreement issue because the category name is plural in form. The sentence about agriculture contains a malformed phrase (“a marginal ise”), which interrupts grammatical accuracy. Check articles, agreement and sentence-level proofreading to make the complex structures more consistently accurate.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.