Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The chart below shows what Anthropology graduates from one university did after finishing their undergraduate degree course. The table shows the salaries of the anthropologists in work after five years.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparison where relevant.

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The chart illustrates the journey of undergraduates of anthropology from a university after their graduation. The table illustrates the salaries of students who started earning after the period of 5 years.

Overall, half of the students starting working as a full time worker. Where others are either unemployed or started studying for postgrad as full time student or working part-time as parallel.

First and foremost, the table shows that 52% of students does full time work. 15% worked as a part-time workers. Some of the students(5%) managed both studies and part-time work. Students who focused only on the study were 8%, same amount of students were not known.

The remaining 12% students were unemployed.

Regarding salaries after five years of work, as shown in the table, freelance consultants and those in the government sector had a relatively high proportion (40% and 50% respectively) earning over $100,000. In contrast, private company employees had a more even distribution across salary brackets, with 30% in the highest salary range.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student covers all parts of the prompt, successfully reporting the main destinations of anthropology graduates and the salary breakdown after five years. An overall trend is attempted, stating that 'half of the students starting working as a full time worker', which accurately reflects the 52% figure. Key features are highlighted, such as the proportions earning over $100,000 in government and freelance sectors compared to private companies. However, there are minor inaccuracies in data reporting; for instance, the student states that '52% of students does full time work' (combining chart data into the table discussion awkwardly) and confuses some categories slightly. The overview lacks a clear summary of the table trends, focusing mainly on the chart. Nevertheless, the response presents a clear and relevant overview with appropriate supporting data, satisfying the criteria for Band 6.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs addressing the chart and the table respectively. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Overall', 'First and foremost', and 'In contrast', which help guide the reader through the data. However, paragraphing is somewhat fragmented, with single-sentence paragraphs like 'The remaining 12% students were unemployed.' disrupting the flow. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally awkward, such as 'Where others are either unemployed...' which uses a fragment as a dependent clause incorrectly. Progression is generally clear, but the mechanical nature of the transitions and choppy paragraph structure place this firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'proportion', 'distribution', and 'freelance consultants'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'starting working as a full time worker' instead of 'started working as full-time workers', 'doing full time work', and 'studying for postgrad as full time student'. Spelling is generally accurate, but awkward phrasing ('working part-time as parallel') and imprecise lexical choices ('the journey of undergraduates') limit the score to Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using relative clauses ('students who started earning', 'students who focused only on the study') and contrastive structures ('while others are either...'). However, grammatical errors are frequent. There are subject-verb agreement errors ('52% of students does full time work', 'same amount of students were not known'), missing articles ('as full time student'), and punctuation/fragment issues ('Where others are either unemployed or started studying...'). While these errors do not severely impede overall communication, they occur regularly enough to prevent the response from achieving a Band 6.5.

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

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