Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

The respective graphs illustrate the percentage of British students at a university that were able to speak another language apart from English in 2000 and 2010 respectively.

The percentage of students unable to speak another language between 2000 and 2010, increased by 5%. However, students who were able to speak two additional languages grew by 5% over this period.

The university going students who could speak both English and Spanish halved over the 10-year-period. This followed a smillar trend with French as an additional language, however, this increase was less, at only 5% less that the year 2000.

Students fluency in German remained the only consistent language over the 10-year-period, remaining steady at 10% of the university's student population.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The student attempts to summarise the main features of the charts by reporting key data points, such as the increase in monolingual students and those speaking two languages. However, there are significant factual inaccuracies in the data reporting. For instance, the text claims that students speaking Spanish 'halved', dropping from 20% to 10%, which is accurate, but the description of French states 'this increase was less, at only 5% less that the year 2000', which is contradictory and inaccurate as French actually decreased from 15% to 10%. Furthermore, the response falls significantly short of the 150-word minimum, containing only 119 words. These factors restrict the score to Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text is organized into four paragraphs, providing a basic structural layout with an introduction and body paragraphs addressing different categories. Cohesive devices are attempted, such as 'However' and 'This followed a smillar trend', but referencing and logical progression are occasionally faulty, particularly in the third paragraph where the comparison regarding French becomes confusing and contradictory. Paragraphing is present, but overall progression is hindered by the lack of a clear overview statement. This performance aligns with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'percentage', 'proportion', 'population', and 'consistent'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, though this is accompanied by spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'smillar' instead of 'similar', and awkward phrasing like 'The university going students'. Lexical items are generally sufficient to convey meaning, despite occasional inaccuracies, placing this response firmly at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'The percentage of students unable to speak another language between 2000 and 2010, increased by 5%.' There are grammatical and punctuation errors, including unnecessary commas separating subjects from verbs ('students... increased') and spelling slips ('smillar'). However, these errors do not impede communication. The control over grammar is adequate for a Band 6.0 rating.

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

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