Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-20
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 chart isllustrates the changes the proportion of households owning electric appliance and the amount of time spent during domestic work in one country between 1920 and 2019.
Overall, the ownership of all three appliances increased over the period. However, refrigerator became the most widely used home appliance between 1920 and 2019 and vaccum cleaner also became increasingly common. Moreover washing machine followed a less consistent pattern before recovering towards the end of the period. The number of hours per week declied between 1920 and 2019.
In 1920, washing machine were owned by 40% of households, compared with around 30% for vaccum cleaner. The refrigerator were harldy owned in 1920. I 1940 and 1960 the percentage of ownerhip of washing machine rose sharply . However, vaccume cleaner and refrigerator showed 70% ownership. the number of hours per week declined approximately 50 to 20 per hour between 1920 and 1960
In 1980 and 2000 the proportion of ownership of refrigerataor surged to about 100% on the other hand in 1980 the percentage of washing machine deline to around 65% but showed increased proportion in 2000 and 2019. The ownerhip of vaccum cleaner gre dramatically to about 100% between 1980 and 2019. Moreover, the number of hours per week constantly declined in these years.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student successfully covers all parts of the task by reporting on both charts and making relevant comparisons. The main features are identified, such as the overall rise in appliance ownership and the corresponding decline in housework hours. However, there are some inaccuracies and minor generalisations in data reporting. For instance, the student states that in 1940 and 1960 'vaccume cleaner and refrigerator showed 70% ownership,' whereas the chart shows the refrigerator at 90% in 1960. Additionally, the description of washing machine trends contains minor misreadings of the exact percentages. Despite these slight data discrepancies, the overall trends are clearly outlined and supported. This performance aligns well with Band 6.5 descriptors, rounding to 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response has a clear overall progression and is divided into logical paragraphs, starting with an introduction and overview, followed by body paragraphs detailing specific time periods. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'However', 'In 1920', and 'on the other hand'. However, referencing and cohesion are occasionally faulty or mechanical, as seen in repetitive phrasing ('In 1920...', 'In 1940...', 'In 1980 and 2000...') and some abrupt transitions between sentences. Paragraphing is adequate, but within paragraphs, the logical flow could be smoother. These features are characteristic of Band 6.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms like 'proportion', 'households', 'appliance', and 'declined'. There are several spelling errors throughout the text, including 'isllustrates' for illustrates, 'vaccum' for vacuum, 'harldy' for hardly, 'ownerhip' for ownership, and 'refrigerataor' for refrigerator. Less common vocabulary is attempted with some inaccuracy, and word choice is occasionally awkward, such as 'spent during domestic work' instead of 'spent doing housework'. Nevertheless, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main message without impeding communication, fitting the Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The line chart isllustrates the changes...' and '...compared with around 30% for vaccum cleaner.' However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors, including missing articles ('refrigerator became the most widely used', 'washing machine were owned'), subject-verb agreement issues ('washing machine were', 'refrigerator were'), and awkward prepositional usage ('spent during domestic work'). Punctuation errors include missing capitalisation ('I 1940') and missing periods or spacing issues. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the score from reaching Band 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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