Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-12

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 4.5)

The chart illustrates the change in ownership of washing machine, refrigerator, and vacuum cleaner along with time spent in a country performing house chores from 1920 to 2019.units given are hours and percentage for the later.

In the first graph the owning of refrigerator and vacuum cleaner are increasing over the years however the washing machines went through a up and down in the years between 1940 to 1960. Meanwhile the time spent on household significantly decreases within years.

washing machines were most owned in year 2019

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The student attempts to address the task by mentioning the appliances and the time spent doing housework, but the response is severely underdeveloped and incomplete. Crucially, the length check confirms the response contains only 87 words, falling well short of the mandatory 150-word minimum requirement. This under-length results in a significant penalty under Task Achievement. Furthermore, while the student notes general trends such as appliances increasing and housework time decreasing, key features are omitted, data points are missing, and comparisons are rudimentary. There is also an isolated, incomplete fragment at the end ('washing machines were most owned in year 2019') that fails to properly report data. Overall, the response addresses the task only minimally, warranting a band score of 4.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The response is divided into three very brief paragraphs, including a one-sentence fragment at the end. Although there is a basic chronological attempt starting from 1920, the overall organization lacks logical progression and detailed development due to the extreme brevity of the text. Cohesive devices are minimal, relying mostly on simple conjunctions and transitional phrases like 'In the first graph' and 'Meanwhile'. Paragraphing is poorly handled because the final point is isolated rather than integrated into a body paragraph. Reference tracking is also somewhat unclear in phrases like 'for the later'. Because the information and ideas are not arranged coherently enough to support a standard essay structure, this merits a band score of 4.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a very basic vocabulary range suited to the topic, using words like 'appliances', 'refrigerator', 'vacuum cleaner', and 'house chores'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'the owning of refrigerator' instead of 'the ownership of refrigerators', and 'up and down' instead of 'fluctuations'. The range is quite limited and repetitive, which causes some difficulty for the reader and prevents the writing from achieving higher bands. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary is just about adequate to convey the basic subject matter, supporting a band score of 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The grammatical structures used are very simple, consisting mainly of basic subject-verb-object constructions. The student attempts a few complex elements, such as 'along with time spent in a country performing house chores from 1920 to 2019', but these attempts are often flawed and punctuated incorrectly (e.g., lowercase letters at the start of sentences like 'units given are hours...'). There are frequent punctuation and capitalization errors throughout the text. While simple sentences are generally understandable, the limited range of structures and frequent mechanical errors mean that control is weak, fitting the descriptor for a band score of 4.5.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.