Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-21

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 6.0)

The first line chart presents the data of electrical appliances such as washing machines, refrigerator and vacuum cleaner owned by households in a country whereas the second line graph gives data of time spent doing housework from 1920 to 2019.

Overall, the first graph displays a sudden surge in the ownership of the refrigerator and the vacuum cleaner. In contrast, the number of the ownership of the washing machines remained significantly high but it stayed low in the overall trend. While the second graph shows dramatic drop in the amount of time spent doing housework across decades.

In 1920, 30% and 40% of the households owned the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine, respectively. The proportion of ownership increased noticeably reaching 70% in 1960 for the both appliances. However, the proportion of the households owning the washing machine decreased over the next two decades before increasing to approximately 72% in 2019. Whilst the percentage of the households owning the vacuum cleaner kept increasing and reached the highest figure of 100% in 2000 and remained steady until 2019.

On the other hand, the proportion of households owning refrigerator was 0% in 1920, but within just two decades, it showed an extreme, sudden increase in ownership reaching nearly 53% by 1940, 90% by 1960 and remained 100% from 1980 to 2019.

Additionally, compared to increase in the proportion of appliances, the amount of hours spent on household work per week decreased substantially. In 1920, 50 hours per week were spent on housework, which became only 20 hours per week by 1960. By the end of 2019, it was only 10 hours per week.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The candidate has covered all parts of the task well, providing a clear summary of both charts and making relevant comparisons. The main features are successfully identified, such as the dramatic rise in refrigerator and vacuum cleaner ownership alongside the steady, high figures for washing machines and the inverse trend in housework hours. The overview effectively captures the primary developments. Although minor details vary slightly from the raw data (such as stating the refrigerator was 0% in 1920 when the transcription reads 2% and giving 72% instead of 75% for washing machines in 2019), these are well within the tolerance for a Task 1 response and do not detract from an accurate overall summary.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The response is logically organised and progresses clearly from an introductory overview to detailed body paragraphs. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different appliances and the trends in housework time. Cohesive devices are handled reasonably well with phrases like 'In contrast', 'While', and 'On the other hand'. However, referencing and cohesion occasionally feel slightly mechanical (e.g., 'the number of the ownership of the washing machines'). Overall progression is clear throughout, meeting the criteria for a band 7.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate to good range of vocabulary suitable for an academic task 1 response, employing terms such as 'proportion', 'ownership', 'surge', and 'substantially'. There are some minor lexical inaccuracies and awkward phrasing, such as 'the number of the ownership' instead of 'the level of ownership' and 'compared to increase' missing an article ('the increase'). Less common items are attempted with some awareness of style, but occasional word choice errors prevent the response from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The candidate uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and comparative constructions (e.g., 'While the second graph shows dramatic drop in the amount of time spent doing housework across decades'). There are several minor grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('shows dramatic drop' instead of 'shows a dramatic drop', 'compared to increase' instead of 'compared to the increase') and a slight error with pluralisation ('washing machines, refrigerator'). However, these errors rarely impede communication, and the majority of simple sentences are accurate.

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