Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-06

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 graphs illustrate the transfer of ownership of electrical appliances. for large blocks of time spent doing housework in households in one country between 1920 and 2019.

Overall, there was significant increase in the ownership in all three electrical appliances over the century. with refrigerator and vacuum cleaner eventually reaching top. concurrently, the amount of time household spent on domestic experienced a dramatic and steady decline.

In 1920, the washing machine was the most common appliances, present in 40% of household, while vacuum cleaner were owned by 30% of families, and refrigerator were practically nonexistent at 0%. by 1960, refrigerator ownership eperienced a rapid surge to 90%, overtaking the other.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response sits at this level because it is significantly underlength, containing only 97 words (with 14 words copied directly from the prompt not counted), which falls well short of the 150-word minimum. Due to this severe limitation, the task is addressed only partially. While the student attempts to outline the main trends in appliance ownership and housework hours, the overview is incomplete, and the response breaks off abruptly in the middle of describing the 1960 data. To reach a higher band, the writer must fully develop all parts of the task, present a complete overview covering both graphs across the entire timeframe, and meet the minimum word count requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

Coherence is limited by the incomplete nature of the response and abrupt termination. The student attempts to use basic cohesive markers such as 'Overall,' and 'In 1920,', and organises the writing into separate paragraphs for the introduction and body. However, the lack of a concluding body and overall progression prevent the text from achieving a coherent flow. Paragraphing is initiated but remains underdeveloped because the piece cuts off mid-sentence in the second body paragraph. To improve Coherence and Cohesion, the writer needs to ensure ideas are fully developed and logically connected from introduction to conclusion, utilizing a wider and more accurate range of cohesive devices.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating attempts at less common phrasing such as 'dramatic and steady decline', 'practically nonexistent', and 'rapid surge'. However, there are noticeable lexical and spelling inaccuracies that reflect this band level, such as 'transfer of ownership' instead of 'changes in ownership', 'ownership in all three' instead of 'ownership of all three', 'the most common appliances' (disagreement with singular noun or plural intent), and the spelling error 'eperienced'. These errors do not entirely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score. To progress, the student should refine word choices, ensure correct collocations, and eliminate spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Grammatical control features a limited range of structures, with noticeable errors that recur throughout the text. There are issues with punctuation and sentence boundary demarcation, such as incorrect full stops used instead of commas or conjunctions in places like 'electrical appliances. for large blocks of time' and 'century. with refrigerator'. Article and pluralisation errors are also present, such as 'households in one country', 'the ownership', 'household spent on domestic' (missing noun), and 'vacuum cleaner were owned'. Attempts at complex structures are often faulty due to these structural slips and punctuation flaws. To improve, the writer must focus on sentence boundary accuracy, correct prepositions, and grammatical agreements.

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

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