Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-13

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 line graph illustrates the proportion of households, appliances and average number of hours of housework per week in one country from 1920 to 2019.

As can be seen from the first figure, refrigerator dramatically rose between 1920 to 1960 and reached 90 percentage which started at 0 . After that it remained stable from 1982 to 2019. Meanwhile, vacuum cleaner increased smoothly during most of the time, and in last twenty years there was no any change, and And almost all households used it.

Washing machine fluctuated slightly in the first forty years. It grew slowly and jumped forty percentage to seventy percentage. Then it decreased slightly and again rose up.

Turning into the second graph, in the 1920, almost 50 hours were contributed to housework. However, the number of hours collapsed sharply between 1920 and 1960. For next 20 years, it declined steadily and reached almost 15 hours, then remained constant again. Again went down slightly, and in the final year, the figure reached the bottom at 10.

Overall, in the first chart, all three appliances followed upward trend, while in the second graph, it followed downward trend.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student attempts to cover the main features of both charts, mentioning refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and the time spent doing housework. However, the summary suffers from several inaccuracies and incomplete reporting. For instance, the opening sentence misinterprets the graphs by stating it shows 'proportion of households, appliances and average number of hours', whereas it actually shows household ownership percentages for various appliances alongside hours of housework. Furthermore, some specific data points and trends are imprecise or confusingly stated, such as 'reached 90 percentage which started at 0' and vague descriptions like 'again went down slightly'. While the overall trends are touched upon in the conclusion, the lack of precision and some misreadings of the data prevent the response from achieving a higher band. It satisfies the basic task requirements adequately, positioning it at band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The text is divided into logical paragraphs, separating the introduction, the body paragraphs detailing the specific charts, and a brief overall summary. However, coherence is hindered by awkward transitions and mechanical or repetitive cohesive devices, such as repeatedly using 'Again' or 'And' at the start of clauses. The progression within paragraphs can be disjointed, notably in the second body paragraph regarding the washing machine, where sentences feel isolated rather than building a cohesive narrative. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as the pronoun use in the final sentence where 'it' is ambiguous. Overall arrangement is coherent enough to follow, but logical flow and referencing require better management, warranting a band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range to convey basic information, using terms such as 'proportion', 'fluctuated', 'stable', and 'constant'. However, there are frequent inappropriate word choices and unnatural collocations, such as 'refrigerator dramatically rose' (appliances don't rise, ownership percentages do), 'reached 90 percentage' (instead of 90 percent), and 'jumped forty percentage to seventy percentage'. There are also minor awkward phrasings like 'in last twenty years there was no any change'. While the vocabulary is minimally sufficient to discuss the visual data, noticeable errors and limited precision restrict the score to a 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There are several noticeable grammatical errors, including missing articles ('refrigerator' instead of 'refrigerators'), awkward preposition use ('between 1920 to 1960', 'in the 1920'), and double negatives or awkward phrasing ('there was no any change'). Punctuation is also occasionally faulty with misplaced commas and spacing issues. Although some simple sentences are accurate and communication is not totally impeded, frequent errors in basic structures and tense/time markers pull the grammar score down to a 5.0.

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

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