Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-30
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 given pie charts illustrate the proportion of British students at one university in England who were able to speak more than one languages in addition to English in the year of 2000 and 2010.
Overall, majority of students were not able to speak any other language in the former year, whereas Spanish remained the second highest speaking language other than english at the same time. French, German, another lanugage and two other languages were also being spoken among students in both the mentioned years.
In 2000, 30% of students were not able to speak any other language other than English. 10% of the students were the speakers of two other languages in the university. 15% were the only French speaker and 10% were the German speakers. The proportion of the only Spanish speakers were 20% and 15% of the students were fimilar with another language.
In the 2010, 20% of british students were familiar with another language. 10% of the students were the speaker of only german language and which was similar with the only spanish sperakers.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The student covers most of the key features of the two pie charts, successfully identifying percentages for categories such as those with no other language, Spanish, French, and multiple languages in both 2000 and 2010. An overview is provided in the second paragraph, capturing the main trend that the majority of students lacked an additional language and that Spanish was prominent. However, the response stops abruptly in the final paragraph, leaving out the data for French and multiple languages in 2010, which prevents full task completion. Furthermore, there is a minor misinterpretation in the opening paragraph regarding 'more than one languages in addition to English', as the charts show languages spoken in addition to English (meaning one or more). Despite these omissions and minor flaws, the selected data is generally accurate according to the visual reference. Band 5.0 is appropriate as the task is only partially addressed due to the incomplete body paragraphs.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The response is organized into four paragraphs, following a logical structure with an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs dedicated to each year. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader, such as 'Overall', 'In 2000', and 'In the 2010'. However, referencing and progression are sometimes faulty, and the abrupt ending of the final paragraph disrupts the overall flow. Paragraphing is attempted appropriately, but the lack of completion in the final section means the information is not fully developed or coherently concluded. Logical organization is present initially, but overall cohesion suffers from the incomplete final section. This performance aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors, where the arrangement is coherent overall, but cohesion is sometimes faulty.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms related to statistics and data description, such as 'proportion', 'illustrate', and 'speakers'. However, there are several lexical errors and awkward phrasings throughout the text, including 'more than one languages' (incorrect pluralisation), 'speaking language other than english' (ungrammatical collocation), 'fimilar' (spelling error for 'familiar'), and 'lanugage' (typo). There is also repetitive use of phrasing such as 'students were not able to speak' and 'proportion of the only Spanish speakers'. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey basic meaning, these noticeable errors and limited lexical flexibility prevent the score from reaching Band 6.0. Therefore, a band score of 5.5 is awarded.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like 'The given pie charts illustrate...' and 'Overall, majority of students were not able to...'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, such as missing articles ('majority of students' instead of 'the majority of students', 'in 2010' used without an article correctly, but 'in the 2010' incorrectly), ungrammatical coordination ('only german language and which was similar with'), and tense or word form issues. Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the frequent errors in basic grammar structures cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from achieving a higher band. These characteristics fit the Band 5 descriptor well, as attempts at complex sentences often contain errors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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