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 two line charts below illustrate the changes in ownership of electrical appliances namely, washing machine, refrigerator and vacuum cleaner and amount of time spent doing housework in households in one country between 1920 and 2019.

Overall, the use of refrigerator was the highest over the years in contrast to washing machine and vacuum cleaner. In 1940, about 55 percent of refrigerator was used which rose sharply to 100 thousand and plateaued at around 100 thousand. Vacuum cleaner usage also showed an increasing trend starting at 30 thousand and increased significantly to 100 thousand and then remained constant. Washing machine followed a fluctuating trend starting at 40 thousand and kept changing over the period of years.

The number of hours spent on housework per week, per household from 1920 to 2019 varied. It was 50 hours per week initially and it then declined gradually reaching to a low of 10 hours per week in 2019.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response fails to meet the minimum length requirement of 150 words, containing only 139 words with 16 words copied from the prompt. While the candidate attempts to address all parts of the task by reporting on both appliance ownership and housework hours, the information is presented with significant inaccuracies. Specifically, the student confuses percentages with thousands, stating that appliances were used by '55 thousand' or '100 thousand' households, which demonstrates a serious misinterpretation of the visual data. The overview attempts to highlight general trends, but the lack of accurate data reporting and the failure to reach the required word count limit the response to a minimal level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to logically structure the information into a clear introduction, overview, body paragraph on appliances, and a final paragraph on housework hours. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'Overall,' 'In 1940,' and 'Vacuum cleaner usage also showed,' though referencing is at times mechanical or faulty due to the confusion over data units. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately to separate the two distinct visual charts, allowing the reader to follow the general progression of the response despite its limitations in length and accuracy.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with attempts to employ less common items and descriptive verbs such as 'plateaued,' 'fluctuating,' 'declined,' and 'increasing trend.' However, there are notable lexical and data interpretation errors, particularly the confusing use of 'thousand' instead of 'percent' when describing household appliance ownership (e.g., '100 thousand'). These word-choice inaccuracies stem from misreading the axes of the chart, though general communication is still maintained, placing the lexical range at a moderate, functional level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like 'The number of hours spent on housework... varied' and subordinate clauses such as 'starting at 40 thousand and kept changing over the period of years.' There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing articles ('the use of refrigerator' instead of 'the refrigerator') and slight awkwardness in prepositional phrases and verb agreement. Nonetheless, these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede overall communication, reflecting a reasonable control of basic and moderately complex sentence patterns.

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