Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-17

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 two charts show how the ownership of three electrical appliances and the time spent on housework changed in one country from 1920 to 2019.

Overall, ownership of all three appliances increased over the 100 year period. at the same time, the number of hours spent on housework per week declined dramatically.

In 1920, only about 2% of households had a refrigerator and 30% had a vaccum cleaner, while 40% owned a washing machine. By 1940, ownership had arisen to around 55% for refrigerators, 50% for vaccum cleansers and 60% for washing mahines.

From 1960 onwards, the trends diverged. Refrigerator ownership rose sharply to 90% in 1960 and reached 100% by 1980, where it remained until 2019. Vaccum cleaner ownership followed a similar but slightly slower trajectory, rising to 70% in 1960, 90%in 1980 and reaching 100% in 2000. Washing machine ownership, in contrast , grew more slowly and plateaued, rising to about 70% in 1960, dipping slightly to 65% in 1980 and then increasing gradually to 75%in 2019.

This increase in labour saving devices corresponded with a fall in housework hours. In 1920, households spent 50 hours per week on housework, including washing clothes, preparing meals and cleaning. This fell steeply to 36 hours in 1940 and 22 hours in 1960, before stabilising at around 18-20 hours from 1980 to 2019.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The student covers all parts of the task well, successfully reporting the main trends and making relevant comparisons between appliance ownership and time spent on housework. An overview is present at the beginning of the response: 'Overall, ownership of all three appliances increased over the 100 year period. at the same time, the number of hours spent on housework per week declined dramatically.' Key data points are accurately cited from the charts, such as the refrigerator rising to 100% and housework hours dropping from 50 to around 11. However, there are minor transcription inaccuracies regarding the data points in the final sentence where the student writes '36 hours in 1940' (closer to 35) and '18-20 hours from 1980 to 2019' (whereas the chart shows 15 in 1980 and 11 in 2019). Despite these small misreadings, the response fully satisfies the requirements for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The text is logically organised with a clear overall progression. It begins with an introductory paragraph containing the overview, proceeds to detail appliance ownership trends, and finishes by linking these to housework hours. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different themes. Cohesive devices are employed with reasonable flexibility, such as 'In 1920', 'By 1940', 'From 1960 onwards', and 'Washing machine ownership, in contrast'. While paragraphing and transitions are generally handled well, the cohesion feels slightly mechanical at times, and there is a minor capitalisation error at the start of the second sentence ('at the same time'). Overall, logical organisation is maintained throughout.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary to allow flexibility and precision, employing terms like 'trajectories', 'plateaued', 'gradually', and 'labour saving devices'. Less common items are used with some awareness of style, though there are occasional spelling errors, such as 'vaccum' instead of 'vacuum' and 'mahines' instead of 'machines'. Furthermore, 'arisen' is used incorrectly in 'ownership had arisen to around 55%'; the correct form would be 'risen'. Despite these errors, the lexical range is adequate for the task and communication is never impeded.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating good control over subordinate clauses and comparative structures. Examples of successful complex structures include 'The two charts show how the ownership of three electrical appliances and the time spent on housework changed...' and 'Vaccum cleaner ownership followed a similar but slightly slower trajectory, rising to 70% in 1960...'. There are a few grammatical and punctuation errors, including a missing comma after introductory phrases, uncapitalised sentence beginnings ('at the same time'), and the incorrect past participle 'arisen'. Nevertheless, the majority of sentences are grammatically sound and errors do not impede communication.

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