Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-24

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 show the changes in ownership of electrical appliances and amount of time spent doing housework in households in one country between 1920 and 2019.

In 1920, washing machine has the highest percentage of households by 40% ,compared with vacuum cleaner with 30% ,while refrigerator was stood at only 5%. By 1940, washing machine has increased to 60% ,and vacuum cleaner also increased by 20%. Refrigerator has shown the impressive growth by 55%. In 1960, refrigerator reached at 90% ,while vacuum cleaner and washing machine stood at 70%. In 1980, the percentage of households of refrigerator reached at its peak at 100% ,and vacuum cleaner households also reached at 100% in 2000. After 1960, washing machine figure was fluctuated and gradually rose to 75% in 2019.

Furthermore, in 1920, people spent 50 hours per week by doing housework. It sharply fell to 20% in 1960 ,and after that it declined slowly and stop at 10% in 2019.

Overall ,the percentage of households with electrical appliances had increased over the period ,while the hours spent per week was decreased during this period

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the task by reporting key features from both the appliance ownership chart and the housework hours graph. Main trends are identified, such as the overall rise in electrical appliance ownership and the corresponding decline in housework hours. However, there are some inaccuracies in data reporting. For instance, the student states that in 1920, the washing machine was at 40%, whereas the reference data shows 40% for the washing machine, but vacuum cleaner at 30% and refrigerator at 2%. The student's sentence structure 'washing machine has the highest percentage of households by 40%' is slightly awkward. Furthermore, for housework hours, the student states it 'fell to 20% in 1960', confusing percentage units with hours. Overall, the task is addressed with relevant information, but data precision issues prevent a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is organized into four logical paragraphs: an introduction, a body paragraph for appliance ownership, a body paragraph for housework hours, and an overall summary. Progression is generally clear throughout the text. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'In 1920', 'By 1940', 'In 1960', and 'Furthermore'. However, referencing and cohesion are occasionally mechanical or slightly clumsy, such as 'after that it declined slowly and stop at 10% in 2019' (where 'stop' should be past tense 'stopped' and the value is actually around 11 hours). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different datasets, contributing to an overall coherent arrangement.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms like 'ownership', 'electrical appliances', 'percentage', 'fluctuated', and 'gradually rose'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary ('impressive growth', 'reached at its peak'), but these are accompanied by lexical and collocational inaccuracies, such as 'reached at' (instead of simply 'reached') and using 'percentage' incorrectly for hours of housework ('fell to 20%'). Spelling is generally accurate, and word-choice errors do not impede overall communication, placing the response solidly in the band 6 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'In 1960, refrigerator reached at 90%, while vacuum cleaner and washing machine stood at 70%.' There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing articles ('The line graph show' should be 'shows'), tense consistency issues ('washing machine has the highest' should be past tense 'had'), and verb forms ('figure was fluctuated' should be active 'fluctuated', 'stop at' should be 'stopped at'). Despite these errors, they rarely impede communication, and the sentence structures demonstrate an adequate range for an Academic Task 1 response.

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

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