Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-18
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 charts illustrate the percentages of electrical devices used in one country between [redacted phone] and the number of hours of house work in a week. The appliances that are mentioned are refrigerator, vacuum cleaner and washing machine.
Overall, there are significant differences between the usage of these household appliances. The washing machine is used mostly during the initial years, then its use became steady and at one point reduced as well. For refrigerator, its usage in 1920 was nil then rose suddenly in between1940 and 1980 became constant there. The vacuum cleaner took a lower start, rose gradually until it ended at 100%.
The number of hours of house work per week was at 50 in 1920, then slowly declined in the subsequent years until finished at 10 in 2019.
Overall, there is quite difference among three appliances during different time frame and their working hours.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response covers all parts of the task by addressing both the appliance ownership chart and the housework hours chart, and provides an overview. However, there are a few minor inaccuracies in describing the data trends, such as stating that the washing machine usage 'reduced as well' when it generally plateaued and rose slightly, and mentioning that housework hours 'finished at 10 in 2019' rather than 11. Crucially, the response falls just short of the minimum word count requirement of 150 words, coming in at 146 words. This slight under-length prevents the task from being fully developed, keeping the score at Band 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The response is organised into four paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs detailing the charts, and a concluding sentence. Overall, there is a clear arrangement of information. However, the progression is occasionally disrupted by repetitive phrasing, such as starting multiple sentences and paragraphs with 'Overall', and the final summary sentence is somewhat redundant. Cohesive devices are basic and sometimes mechanical (e.g., 'then', 'For refrigerator'), but referencing is generally clear. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, details, and summary.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with appropriate topic-specific terms such as 'percentages', 'electrical devices', 'household appliances', and 'vacuum cleaner'. However, the range is limited and there are awkward word choices and collocation errors, such as 'percentages of electrical devices used' instead of 'percentage of households with electrical appliances' and 'house work' written as two words. Less common vocabulary is attempted with some inaccuracy. While communication is not impeded, the repetition of basic words restricts the lexical score to Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The appliances that are mentioned are...' and 'The washing machine is used mostly during the initial years, then its use became steady...'. There are several grammatical errors and awkward expressions, including tense inconsistencies (e.g., mixing present and past tenses like 'is used' and 'rose') and missing prepositions or articles. Despite these errors, the meaning remains mostly clear to the reader, and punctuation is generally handled adequately.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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