Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-19

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

Overall, the percentage of households with refrigerator and vacuum cleaner increase continuously from 1920 to 2019 while the percentage of households with washing machine fluctuated. The number of hours of housework per week continuously decreased from 1920 to 2019.

The trend of using refrigerator increased rapidly and reached to 100 percent in 1980 and maintained its position at 100 percent from 1980 to 2019. Similiar, the percentage of using vacuum cleaner was also went to 100 percent in 2000 and maintained its position at 100 percent from 2000 to 2019. In contrast, the percentage of using washing machine used in household is fluctuating between 40 to 72.

The number of hours required for the washing clothes, preparing meals, and cleaning declined from 50 percent in 1920 to 10 percent in 2019 due to increased in the utilization of these electronic equipments in the household.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the main overall patterns: refrigerator and vacuum-cleaner ownership rose, while housework time fell. You also report the key saturation points for refrigerators (1980) and vacuum cleaners (2000). However, some details are inaccurate or unclear: housework is measured in hours, not percentages, and it fell from 50 to about 11 hours, rather than 10 percent. The washing-machine figure is described as fluctuating between 40 and 72, but the chart shows a rise from 40 to 70, a dip to 65, then an increase to 75. The explanation that appliance use caused the decline is not established by the charts. The response is one word below the 150-word minimum; include a little more accurate comparison and detail.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, an overview, and separate paragraphs for appliance ownership and housework. This makes the main topics easy to follow, and transitions such as “Overall” and “In contrast” help signal relationships. However, progression within the appliance paragraph is somewhat repetitive, with both refrigerator and vacuum-cleaner trends described using similar “reached” and “maintained” phrasing. The final sentence also introduces a causal explanation rather than continuing the chart comparison, which weakens the focus of the paragraph. To improve, group the appliance trends more efficiently and connect the housework figures directly to the relevant years, using clear comparisons rather than an unsupported conclusion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant task vocabulary, including “percentage,” “declined,” “maintained,” and “household,” and the meaning is generally understandable. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, such as “the trend of using refrigerator,” “percentage of using vacuum cleaner,” and “washing machine used in household is fluctuating.” Prefer expressions such as “refrigerator ownership,” “the proportion of households with a vacuum cleaner,” and “washing-machine ownership fluctuated.” “Similiar” is also misspelled, and “electronic equipments” is not the appropriate form: use “electrical appliances” or “equipment.” A more precise range of trend language would help you describe rises, plateaus, and the brief washing-machine decline without relying on repeated wording.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mixture of simple statements and longer sentences, and the overall meaning can usually be followed. However, some grammatical errors affect accuracy. In “the percentage … increase continuously,” the verb should agree with the singular subject (“increases”); “reached to 100 percent” should be “reached 100 percent”; and “was also went” combines incompatible verb forms. The phrase “the percentage of using washing machine used in household is fluctuating” has an unclear, faulty structure. In the final sentence, “declined from 50 percent … to 10 percent” misrepresents the unit, while “due to increased in” is not grammatically formed. Use a wider range of controlled sentence patterns and check agreement, verb forms, and sentence construction.

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