Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-11-01

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 5.5)

The pie chart delineates the career path of the Anthropology graduates from a university after accomplishing their degree, while the table illustrates the salaries of the anthropologists in three different types of employment after five years of work experience.

Overall, more than half of the graduates get full time job after graduation, while 12% of them remains unemployed. On the other hand, the table provides information about salaries on freelance consultants, government sector, and private companies, where most of the employees in freelance consultants receive highest amount of money.

5% of the Anthropology graduates involves with part-time work as well as postgrad study, whereas 8% of the them focus soley of postgrad study. 15% of the graduates work part-time where 52% involves with full-time job.

The salaries of the graduates with 5 years of experience are splited in four ranges. Privates companies' salary are the most distributed in these four ranges where 10% gets the lowest salary from the range and 30% gets the highest salary.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You identify the main destination, noting that full-time work accounts for 52%, and include several other graduate outcomes. However, the overview is incomplete: it does not highlight that full-time work is the largest destination or compare the salary patterns across all three employment types. The claim that freelance consultants receive the highest salaries is not supported as a general comparison: 40% of freelancers are in the top band, compared with 50% of government employees. Your salary discussion then covers only private companies, and the statement that 30% receive the highest salary is inaccurate; 30% is the figure for the $100,000+ band, while 10% is in the lowest band. Select and compare key figures from each row to make the report more complete and accurate.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, and paragraphs covering graduate destinations and salaries. This gives the reader a basic route through the information. However, progression is uneven because the final paragraph discusses only private-company salaries and does not connect this detail to the earlier comparison of employment types. Some linking phrases, such as “On the other hand,” suggest a contrast that is not clearly developed. The overview also combines the destination chart and salary table without establishing the most important comparison between them. Organise the body around the two visuals, and use clear comparisons within the salary paragraph—for example, contrasting the top salary bands in government and freelance work.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “career path,” “graduates,” “employment,” “salary ranges,” and “postgrad study.” These choices make the topic clear, and attempts such as “delineates” and “illustrates” show some variety. However, several word choices or forms are inaccurate or unnatural, including “accomplishing their degree,” “involves with,” “solely of,” and “splited.” “Highest amount of money” is also less precise than language describing the highest salary band. These errors do not prevent understanding, but they limit precision and naturalness. Prefer standard collocations such as “completing their degree,” “are employed in,” and “the highest salary bracket,” and check spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrastive overview sentence beginning “Overall” and a clause introduced by “whereas.” The main information is generally understandable. Some grammatical errors remain, however: “12% of them remains” has a subject–verb agreement problem, and “5% of the Anthropology graduates involves” also uses an incorrect verb form. There are article and determiner issues in “after accomplishing their degree” and “8% of the them,” while “salary are” does not agree with its subject. These errors are noticeable, although the intended meaning is usually recoverable. Check agreement with percentage subjects and plural nouns, and proofread articles and sentence patterns after drafting.

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