Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-15

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The graph below shows average carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per person in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy and Portugal between 1967 and 2007.

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

Student answer (Band 4.0)

The line graph illustrates average carbon dioxide emissions persons in various countries which involves countries like United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy and Portugal period from 1967 to 2007.

The countries involves such as four in the three countries it was surge and other one country was fall in five years.

the average carbon dioxide emissions in metric tonnes two counties such as drop United Kingdom and Sweden other two countries are rise which involves that Italy and Portugal, the Portugal was begin with 1 percent rise to 5 percent however the Italy was begin with 4% and finish with 7%, Other two countries Sweden has begin with 8 drop to 5% both are same Portugal and Sweden but one county was fall, other one is growth in 1997 it was very high 10.5%, the United kingdom has 10.5 to decline 7% in the five years of period the carbon dioxide sometime rise and sometime drop, it was average CO2 per person.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response attempts to address the prompt by mentioning the countries and some general trends, but it falls significantly short of a coherent overview. The student describes the graph as showing that 'in the three countries it was surge and other one country was fall', which is factually incorrect and ignores the actual data trajectories shown in the chart. Furthermore, the specific figures provided (such as 'Portugal was begin with 1 percent rise to 5 percent') are inaccurate and confused. The lack of accurate data reporting, absence of a clear overall trend, and incomplete coverage of the main features place this response firmly in the lower bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The organization of the text is extremely weak, preventing any logical progression of ideas. The response is essentially a single massive, run-on paragraph or poorly broken fragments that lack proper transitions. Sentences such as 'The countries involves such as four in the three countries it was surge' are ungrammatical and fail to establish logical connections. Furthermore, cohesive devices are either misused or absent, and referencing is unclear ('both are same Portugal and Sweden but one county was fall'). Paragraphing is not used effectively to structure the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is extremely basic, repetitive, and restricted. The student repeatedly misuses common terms ('persons' instead of 'per person', 'involves' instead of 'includes', 'surge' and 'fall' used incorrectly as nouns or verbs). There is no successful attempt at less common lexical items, and word choice errors frequently impede understanding, such as 'metric tonnes two counties such as drop United Kingdom'. Spelling and word formation are problematic throughout the text.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical range is severely limited, consisting almost entirely of heavily flawed, fragmented, and run-on simple structures. There are virtually no error-free sentences in the text. Frequent errors include missing verbs, incorrect prepositions, tense confusion ('has begin', 'was begin'), and a complete lack of control over complex sentence forms. Punctuation is also neglected, with run-on clauses linked improperly without conjunctions or periods, making the text very difficult to parse.

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

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