Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-30

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 6.5)

The pie chart illustrates what did anthropology graduates from a university opt for after completing their undergraduate studies, while the table indicates the pay scale of anthropologists after five years.

Overall, the highest number of people choose to work full-time after their undergraduate degree, while very few people opt to continue studying for their postgrad along with working part-time.

After their undergraduate degree, more than half of the students decided to work full-time, whereas 8% choose to go ahead with postgraduation. Another 20% graduates prefer working part-time and around 5% of them continue their postgrad degree parallely. While 12% of the others are unemployed whereas status of the remaining students remains unknown.

After working for five years, government sector has half of the people with salaries above $100,000 whereas, in private sector maximum people(35%) have salary in the range of $50,000-74,999 and freelance consultant have equal proportion in $[redacted phone]9 and $[redacted phone]+ which is nearly 80% of total. All three categories have least people with pay scale of $[redacted phone]9 which is 5% for both government sector and freelance consultants and 10% for private sector.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response covers all parts of the task well, providing an overview of both the pie chart and the table. The student successfully identifies main trends, such as full-time work being the most common destination for anthropology graduates (52%) and the variation in salaries across different employment sectors after five years. Data is generally reported accurately, such as noting that 50% of government sector employees earn above $100,000. However, there is a slight mathematical inaccuracy in grouping part-time work and part-time study together as '20% graduates prefer working part-time' when the chart shows 15% for part-time work and 5% for part-time work + postgrad study (though combined they do equal 20%). Overall, ideas are adequately extended and supported.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall progression, moving logically from an introduction to an overview, followed by details of the pie chart and then the table. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different parts of the visual data. Cohesive devices are present, such as 'Overall', 'After their undergraduate degree', and 'whereas', but some transitions are slightly mechanical or repetitive ('After... After...'). Referencing is generally clear, though paragraph transitions could be smoother. Overall arrangement meets the criteria for Band 6.5 to 7.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary relevant to the visual data, including terms like 'undergraduate degree', 'postgraduation', 'unemployed', and 'freelance consultants'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary ('parallely', 'proportion', 'pay scale'), but also a few awkward collocations or word choices, such as 'what did anthropology graduates from a university opt for' (grammatically awkward relative clause) and 'parallely' (non-standard adverb form, instead of 'concurrently' or 'simultaneously'). Spelling is generally good, but minor lexical slips prevent a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using clauses of time and contrast ('while the table indicates', 'whereas 8% choose to go ahead'). There are several grammatical errors, most notably the indirect question error in the opening sentence ('what did anthropology graduates... opt for' instead of 'what anthropology graduates... opted for'), tense inconsistency ('choose' instead of 'chose'), and missing articles ('government sector has half' instead of 'the government sector'). However, these errors do not impede overall communication, placing the response firmly at Band 6.0.

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

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