Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-17

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 5.0)

The line graph illustrates average Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per person in four countries (United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy and Portugal) between 1967 and 2017. Units are measuredin metric tones.

Overall, there were dramatical changes over the period of 50 years. United kingdom remained dominating although it fell significantly while Sweden rose first then plunged at 1987. Italy and portual showed fluctuations , rising at first and then remained stable .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You identify the graph’s subject and mention several relevant trends, including the UK’s decline and Sweden’s rise followed by a fall. However, the response is very incomplete: it gives no specific figures, omits the key comparison that Italy overtook Sweden and finished second, and inaccurately says Italy fluctuated before remaining stable. Italy rose steadily before levelling off, while Portugal also increased throughout. The stated period is 1967–2017, but the graph ends in 2007. The overview is therefore only partly accurate and the main features are not adequately reported. The response contains 62 words, below the required 150, which leaves too little space to summarise and compare the data fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The response has a basic structure: an opening sentence identifies the graph, followed by an overview beginning with “Overall”. This gives the reader a simple starting point, and the trends are grouped into a single summary. However, there is no developed progression beyond these two sentences, and the response does not organise the countries’ changes into clear comparisons or supporting details. The linking word “although” connects the UK’s high position with its decline, but the final sentence combines several trends without making their relationships clear. To improve, use separate, logically ordered paragraphs for the overview and key details, and connect comparisons explicitly—for example, contrast the UK’s decline with Italy’s rise.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “emissions”, “per person”, “remained” and “plunged”, and the meaning is generally recoverable. There is also an attempt to describe change rather than simply list countries. However, the range is narrow, and several choices or forms are inaccurate or awkward: “dramatical changes” is not idiomatic, “remained dominating” is an unsuitable collocation, and “metric tones” misspells the unit. Country names are inconsistently capitalised, and “portual” is misspelled. More precise trend language would help distinguish a steady rise, a sharp fall and a plateau. Check spelling and collocations carefully, and use vocabulary that accurately describes the graph’s movements.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response includes a few simple sentence patterns and attempts a more complex construction, such as “although it fell significantly”. The main ideas can usually be understood, but grammatical control is uneven. In “Units are measuredin metric tones”, the words run together, and the construction is awkward; “the period of 50 years” is also not expressed naturally. The sentence about Italy and Portugal shifts from “showed” to “rising” and then “remained”, making the relationship between the actions unclear. Punctuation is inconsistent, including a space before the comma in “fluctuations ,”. Practise accurate sentence boundaries and parallel verb forms, and build a wider range of controlled sentences to explain trends.

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