Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-18

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 5.5)

The grahical representation is the comparison of CO2 emissions per person of the selected European Countries such as UK,Sweden,Italy and Portugal between 1967 and 2007.The graph plotted with the year in X axis and the emissions in metric tonnes along the Y axis.

Its relevant that the emissions during 1967 in United kingdom is above 10 metric tonnes along with the Sweden.But during the later years it can be seen that the graph is plummetting from there.The Co2 emissions in United Kingdom started decling in 1977 after a steady stat from 1967 over the 10 year time period,In case of Sweden it was around 9 metric tonnes durig 1967, later inn 1977 it rose above 10 metric tonnes and after that there is a sharp fall.

On the Contrary it can be seen that the emissions in case of Countries like Italy and Portugal rised .Incase of Portugal its clearly evident that the emissions increased from below 2 tonnes to around 5 tonnes in 1997.From there onwards its growing at relatively lesser pace.Otherhand Italian graph is much more of a pulsating type or fluctualing constantly .It start around 4 tonnes in Carbon production in 1967 ,then climbed up in 1977 ,later it dipped a little bit in 1987.later it rose again in 1997 and then it declined during 2007.

From the graph we came to the inference that the European countries tried to stabilise the Co2 emissions when you analyse the given countries performance over the 40 years .Eventhough italy and Portugal started emitting more in the beginning ,now its came to a standstill or having a straight line ,Inspite of all the emissions the UK and Sweden reduced the emissions,especially after 1987.Uk showed a steady decling.But swedens graph is relatively fluctualing .But going down.Final word on this is that all countries are taking the adequate measures or taking the carbon emissions down.They are almost performing equally.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student attempts to cover all four countries shown in the graph and highlights general trends such as the decreases in the UK and Sweden and the increases in Italy and Portugal. However, there are numerous inaccuracies and misreadings of the data. For instance, the text claims that Sweden started around 9 metric tonnes in 1967 when the graph shows approximately 8.6, and states that Portugal grew to around 5 tonnes in 1997 when the figure is closer to 5.2, but the broader trends are captured. The overview provided in the concluding paragraph is somewhat imprecise and over-generalised ('all countries are taking the adequate measures'). While the main features are identified, the lack of precision in reading specific data points prevents a higher band score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is organised into paragraphs, with an introduction, body paragraphs dealing with separate groups of countries, and a conclusion. However, the logical progression is frequently disrupted by poor paragraphing, abrupt transitions, and run-on sentences. Cohesive devices are used awkwardly or repetitively ('On the Contrary', 'later inn', 'Otherhand'), and referencing is occasionally unclear. Furthermore, punctuation and spacing errors (such as missing spaces after periods and commas, like 'UK,Sweden,Italy') create choppy reading and undermine the overall flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student attempts to use a range of vocabulary relevant to graph descriptions, such as 'plummetting', 'decling', 'fluctualing', and 'stabilise'. However, there are numerous spelling errors ('grahical', 'decling', 'Incase', 'Otherhand', 'fluctualing', 'Eventhough', 'Insipite') and word-choice inaccuracies. Less common lexical items are attempted but lack precision and proper collocation. The vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, but frequent errors in form and spelling restrict the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response demonstrates an attempt at complex sentence structures, but these are frequently marred by grammatical inaccuracies, missing articles, and faulty agreement. Examples include 'The graph plotted with the year in X axis' (missing auxiliary verb and preposition) and 'now its came to a standstill' (incorrect tense and pronoun form). Punctuation control is weak, with frequent comma splices, run-on sentences, and missing spaces after punctuation marks. Simple sentences tend to be more accurate, but frequent errors in complex forms cause some difficulty for the reader.

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