Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-28

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The charts below show the changes in ownership of electrical appliances and amount of time spent doing housework in households in one country between 1920 and 2019.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Percentage of households with electrical appliances (1920-2019)

Student answer (Band 6.5)

The chart visualizes the changes in ownership of electrical appliances and the amount of time for doing household work in a country over the years from 1920 to 2019.

The percentage of households with electrical appliances increased over the years with refrigerator showing the highest growth rate. All the households were finally equipped with both refrigerators and vacuum cleaners. However, washing machines didn't show a significant increase as the others. Subsequently, the number of hours people spent on household work also declined dramatically over time.

Over the years, refrigerators started appearing in more households. In 1920, none of the houses had refrigerator, although in 2019, there seemed to be no house without it. It had the highest growth rate among the appliances and the percentage kept increasing until it reached 100% in 1980 and has remained constant ever since. Further, about 30% of households had a vacuum cleaner in 1920, which increased steadily over the years till it reached 100% in 2000 and since then it has remained constant. However, washing machines only saw a comparatively lower increase in percentage. It started at 40% in 1920, which rose to 70% in 1960, dropped slightly to around 65% in 1980 and further increased to around 75% in 2019.

The number of hours of housework per week also fell significantly over the years due to increase in the percentage of houses having various electrical appliances. Back in 1920, people used to do household chores for 50 hours per week which dropped sharply to about 15 hours in 1980, and remained nearly constant even in 2000. After that it fell to 10% in 2019.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response effectively covers all key features of the charts. You have successfully identified the main trends, such as the inverse relationship between appliance ownership and housework hours. The data is well-selected, and you make relevant comparisons, such as noting the refrigerator's rise to 100% compared to the washing machine's more modest growth. To reach a higher band, ensure you avoid minor inaccuracies; for example, you stated that in 1920 'none of the houses had refrigerator', but the chart shows a small percentage (around 0-5%). Additionally, ensure data points are described with precision, as you mentioned '10%' for housework in 2019, which appears to be a slight misreading of the graph.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a summary of trends. The progression of ideas is easy to follow, and you use a range of cohesive devices such as 'subsequently', 'however', and 'over the years' to link sentences and paragraphs. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the appliance data from the housework data. To improve, ensure that referencing is always precise; for instance, 'as the others' is slightly vague and could be improved by specifying 'as the other appliances'. Overall, the flow is smooth and the structure supports the reader's understanding.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate a sufficient range of vocabulary to convey information clearly. Phrases like 'highest growth rate', 'remained constant', and 'dropped sharply' are used effectively. There is some awareness of collocation, though some word choices could be more sophisticated. For example, 'none of the houses had refrigerator' is grammatically awkward and lacks the precision expected at higher bands. While the vocabulary is adequate for the task, incorporating more varied and precise academic collocations would elevate the response. The spelling is accurate throughout.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is generally effective. There are some minor grammatical slips, such as 'washing machines didn't show a significant increase as the others' (which should be 'as significant an increase as the others') and 'none of the houses had refrigerator' (missing an article). Despite these occasional errors, your meaning is always clear, and the punctuation is generally correct. To achieve a higher score, aim for more consistent control over complex sentence structures and ensure articles are used correctly with singular countable nouns.

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

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