Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-11

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some university students want to learn about other subjects in addition to their main subjects. Others believe it is more important to give all their time and attention to studying for a qualification. Discuss both these views and give your opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 4.5)

The given bar chart provides information about the number of households by income during the period from 2007 to 2015 every four years in the US.

Overall, the number of households in each income bracket looked steady without any dramatic rise in each year. For example, at the beginning the incomes looked average, and did not have a very big difference, except $75,000-$99,999. However, at the end, the number of households did not significantly change.

In 2007, the number of households whose income was less than $25,000 was 25 million, and after 4 years the bar rose steadily to about 28 million. However, the number of families in 2015 dropped to over 26 million. The number of households with income from $25,000 to $49,999, in 2007 was over 26 million. After some amount of time, the bar rose to about 29 million families, and by the end of the period, it decreased to over 27 million.

At the beginning, the number of households whose income was from $50,000 to $74,999, was much lower than the other two incomes and had over 20 million. After 4 years it rose steadily to 22 million, and after another 4 years it fell to 20 million again. In addition, the number of families with an income from $75,000 to $99,999 was the smallest in comparison with the other 3 incomes, In 2007 it had over 14 million families, and did not grow until 2015. At the end it increased to about 15 million. In contrast, the number of households with an income from $100,000 and more, was the highest in comparison with other incomes. In 2007 it had over 29 million families, but in 2014 it had decreased to over 27 million. And in 2015 it experienced a sharp increase to over 34 million families.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for an essay discussing the merits of university students studying additional subjects versus focusing solely on their main qualification. Instead, the student has written a report describing a bar chart about US household income. As the response fails to address the task prompt entirely, it cannot be assessed for task achievement regarding the essay question. In an actual examination, this would be treated as a non-attempt or a misinterpretation of the task, resulting in a very low score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into paragraphs, and there is a logical progression of information regarding the data presented in the chart. The student uses basic cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'For example', 'However', and 'In contrast' to link sentences. While the content is irrelevant to the prompt, the internal structure of the report itself is coherent and follows a standard format for a data description task. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the overview from the detailed body paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for describing trends and data, using terms like 'steady', 'dramatic rise', 'significantly change', and 'sharp increase'. There is some repetition of phrases such as 'number of households' and 'in comparison with'. The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary to describe the visual information provided, though it does not reach the level of sophistication required for higher bands. There are no significant spelling errors that impede communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some grammatical inaccuracies, such as 'the number of households... looked steady' and 'the number of families... was the smallest in comparison with the other 3 incomes'. Punctuation is generally functional, though there are minor errors, such as the comma splice in 'the other 3 incomes, In 2007'. Despite these errors, the meaning remains clear throughout the report, and the grammatical control is sufficient for a Band 6 level.

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.