Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-07

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 5.5)

The two line graphs illustrates information about the percentage of three different household item with electrical appliance and the average of hours of housework per household per week from 1920 to 2019 over the 100 years- period. The unit is measured in percentage.

Overall, it can be seen that the ownership of electrical appliances increased considerably over the period , with refrigerator and vacuum cleaner. In contrast, the number of hours of housework dramatically decreased .

In 1920, washing machine were owned by around 40% of households, while approximately 30% had a vacuum cleaner. By contrast, refrigerator were not owned by any households in this time. By 1940, washing machine rise sharply around 60% and vacuum cleaner grew at 50% . 50% for refrigerator of household items in 1940. The proportion of households with refrigerator increased sharply at 90% to almost 100% over the period in 2019. , whereas vacuum cleaner rise sharply about 70% to almost 100% over the period in 2019 and washing machine fluctuated slightly at 71% in 1980 to before rising gradually to approximately 70% in 2019.

Turning to the amount of housework, households spent of hours per week in 1920 at approximately 50 hours per week , while in 1940 spend spend hours per week fall down at 35 hour. It then continued dramatically drop 20 hour in 1960. By 2019, the average amount of housework had fallen to approximately 10 hour per week

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have successfully identified the main trends and provided a clear overview of the data. You covered all parts of the task, including the ownership of the three appliances and the decline in housework hours. However, there are some inaccuracies in reporting the data; for example, you stated that refrigerators were not owned by any households in 1920, but the graph shows a small percentage. Additionally, some data points are presented in a confusing manner, such as the description of the washing machine trend in 1980. To reach a higher band, ensure that data points are cited with greater precision and that the comparison between the two charts is more explicitly linked.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, an overview, and body paragraphs focusing on specific data sets. You use some cohesive devices like 'In contrast' and 'Turning to', which help the flow of information. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical, and there are instances where the progression of ideas is slightly hindered by awkward phrasing or punctuation errors, such as the stray comma before 'whereas'. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring smoother transitions between sentences would enhance the overall coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'fluctuated', 'sharply', and 'proportion'. However, there are several errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'fall down at' instead of 'fell to' and 'average of hours' instead of 'average number of hours'. Some phrasing is repetitive, particularly the use of 'rise sharply' and 'over the period'. To improve, focus on using more precise collocations and avoiding repetitive sentence structures when describing trends.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('The two line graphs illustrates', 'washing machine were owned'), missing articles, and awkward verb tenses ('spend spend hours'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to affect the clarity of your report. You should focus on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and ensuring that your verb tenses are consistent when describing past data.

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

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