Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-29

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 pie charts illustrate the proportion of British students who were billingual, who could speak an additional language other than English, between the period of 2000 and 2010.

Overall, pie charts are divided into 6 different sections, in which people who don't know any language other than English holds the most proportions. Meanwhile, Spanish and French are the most comman languages which students are able to speak.

In 2000, majority of the students aren't billingual which accounts for 30% of the total pie chart. Moreover, Spanish and French are most commonly spoken languages other than English, with little less than a quarter for Spanish and about 15% for French. One-tenth of the students are able to speak German as well as those who can speak two other languages.

Whereas in 2010, a dramatic decrease can be seen in the Spanish users, about half of the previous proportion. 5% increase can be seen in proportions, namely people who speak another language or a number of different languages and people who don't speak other tongue. German language users appears to remain same between the period of 10 years.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student covers all parts of the task well, successfully reporting the main features of the two pie charts from 2000 and 2010. An overview is provided in the second paragraph, highlighting that those with no other language held the largest proportions while Spanish and French were the most common spoken languages. Key data points are selected and compared, such as the drop in Spanish speakers from 20% to 10% and the stability of German speakers at 10%. However, there are minor inaccuracies in reading the data; for instance, the student states that in 2000 'majority of the students aren't billingual which accounts for 30%', when 30% represents a minority share rather than a majority, and the phrase 'little less than a quarter for Spanish' slightly misrepresents the 20% figure. Despite these minor data interpretation slips, the response satisfactorily addresses the prompt requirements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement and is divided into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction, moving to an overview, and then detailing the years 2000 and 2010 respectively. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader through the data, such as 'Overall', 'Meanwhile', 'In 2000', and 'Whereas in 2010'. However, referencing and paragraph flow are occasionally faulty or mechanical, such as the awkward transition in the second paragraph ('pie charts are divided into 6 different sections, in which people who don't know any language other than English holds the most proportions'). Paragraphing is sufficient and appropriate for an Academic Task 1 response, but greater flexibility in referencing would be required for a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and descriptive verbs such as 'proportion', 'dramatic decrease', and 'remain same'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors, including 'billingual' (bilingual), 'comman' (common), and 'majority of the students aren't billingual which accounts for 30%' (where 30% is not a majority). Furthermore, phrases like 'Spanish users' and 'German language users' are slightly unnatural in the context of language proficiency chart summaries. These lexical inaccuracies do not impede communication, placing the response firmly at Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses ('who were billingual, who could speak an additional language') and introductory prepositional phrases ('In 2000', 'Whereas in 2010'). There are several grammatical errors present, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('people who don't know any language other than English holds', 'majority of the students aren't billingual which accounts'), tense inconsistencies ('aren't' instead of 'weren't' when discussing 2000 data), and missing articles ('a dramatic decrease can be seen in the Spanish users'). Nevertheless, these errors rarely impede overall communication, and the sentence structures remain reasonably varied.

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

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