Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-15

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The charts below show the proportions of British students at one university in England who were able to speak other languages in addition to English, in 2000 and 2010

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The bar chart illustrates the porportionality of Spanish, French, German and other languages spoken by the british students in a single university of England between year 2000 and 2010. The results were measured in percentage.

Overall, the ability to spoke more then one language by students was seen higher, as compared to solely relying on english. The trends for speaking two other languages at a same time were positively climbed, in contrast Spanish and French recorded a gradual drop after a some time.

Another language speaking capacity rose by 5% in a year 2010 as compared to past, which is complementing rise in rate of two other languages. The monolingual students increased from 30% in 2000 to 35% in 2010.

Where as, Spanish experienced a mojor decline of 10% in year 2010 as compared to past. The Students preference for French also decreased to the half from 10%. German was an only language which remained stable throughout those years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student attempts to address the task by summarising the data from the charts regarding languages spoken by British students in 2000 and 2010. However, there are notable inaccuracies in reading the data, such as stating that French decreased to half from 10% (whereas French was 15% in 2000 and 10% in 2010), and misidentifying the chart type as a bar chart instead of pie charts. While an overview is attempted, some of the supporting details are confused, and the selection of main features lacks precision. Consequently, the response achieves a Band 5.5 because it addresses the task partially with some inaccurate reporting of the visual data.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is divided into paragraphs, which helps structure the response, but the overall logical progression is frequently disrupted by awkward phrasing and mechanical cohesive devices. Phrases like 'Where as' and 'Another language speaking capacity' fail to establish smooth transitions between sentences. Pronoun referencing and linking are sometimes faulty, making it difficult to follow the relationships between data points. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion lacks flexibility and accuracy, placing this response firmly in the Band 5.5 range.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for basic description, but contains frequent inaccuracies in word choice, form, and collocation. Examples include 'porportionality' instead of 'proportions', 'british' with a lowercase letter, and unnatural phrasing like 'Another language speaking capacity' and 'mojor decline'. Spelling and word formation errors, such as 'spoke' instead of 'speaking', restrict the range and occasionally impede clear communication. The lexical adequacy is limited, reflecting the descriptors for Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'the ability to spoke more then one language', 'were positively climbed', 'at a same time', and 'German was an only language'. Punctuation and article usage are also flawed throughout the text. These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from reaching a higher band, aligning it with Band 5.0.

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

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