Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-18

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 provided pie chart gives information about the careers of anthropology degree holders from one university, Their payments five years later are presented in the table as they have been divided into 3 categories namely Freelance consultants, Goverment sector and private companies. It is evident that the majority of graduates have a position, and Government sector employers are getting paid more.

Talking about employment, roughly half of the graduates got a full-time occupation, in comparison with only 12% of unemployed persons. In addition to that, 28 percent of them are either persuing a post grad study, part-time job or both together.

Turning to the salaries, they primarily depend on each sector the person is working with. The largest proportion of goverment workers are getting paid more than [redacted phone] a year, while in private companies only 30% are getting the same amount. For freelancers, most of them are earning above $75000.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion7.0
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.5
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You identify the main employment outcome—full-time work at 52%—and make relevant comparisons in the salary table, including the 50% of government employees earning $100,000 or more versus 30% in private companies. The overview also recognises that most graduates entered employment. These points show a sound grasp of both visuals. However, some details are compressed or imprecise: the 28% grouping combines part-time work, postgraduate study and both, without distinguishing the separate categories, and “most” freelancers earning above $75,000 is not quite accurate because the relevant total is 80%, which would be clearer with figures. The overview could also identify the largest salary band for private-company employees. More precise reporting and fuller coverage of key contrasts would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response is organised into a brief introduction and overview followed by separate paragraphs on graduate destinations and salaries. This gives the reader a clear progression, and signposts such as “Talking about employment” and “Turning to the salaries” make the shift between visuals easy to follow. The comparisons are generally placed in the relevant sections. To make the organisation more effective, develop the overview as a distinct summary of the most important features, then group related figures more systematically—for example, compare the salary distributions across all three sectors. Some linking phrases are formulaic, and the opening sentence is overloaded with several pieces of information. More precise referencing and smoother connections between comparisons would make cohesion feel more flexible.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “full-time occupation,” “unemployed,” “proportion,” and “salary,” and the meaning is generally clear. There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “the largest proportion.” However, several choices are imprecise or unnatural for describing the visuals: “their payments” is less suitable than “their salaries,” and “getting paid more” is conversational and vague. Spelling errors in “Goverment,” “persuing,” and “post grad” also reduce accuracy. Aim for consistent, precise terms such as “graduates,” “employment,” and “earnings,” and use standard spelling and formal collocations. This would improve control without requiring unnecessarily complex vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the comparison “while in private companies only 30% are getting the same amount” and the clause beginning “as they have been divided.” Most sentences remain understandable, so grammatical errors do not obstruct the message. Some punctuation and sentence-boundary control needs attention: “university, Their payments” incorrectly joins two sentences with a comma, and the capitalisation after that comma is also inappropriate. The phrase “the majority of graduates have a position” is grammatically possible but awkwardly constructed for this context. There is also some inconsistency in tense when describing completed outcomes and current salary patterns. Review sentence boundaries and choose tense forms consistently to make the varied structures more accurate.

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

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