Band 6 in IELTS Task 1: A Sample Answer and the Arithmetic Behind It

A band 6 in IELTS Writing Task 1 is not one thing. The band is the average of four separate marks, and several quite different answers average to 6.0. An answer with excellent content and weak language lands there. So does an answer that is even across all four.

That is why reading a model answer labelled band 6 teaches you so little. You cannot tell which of the four marks was the low one, so you cannot tell what to change.

This page gives you the arithmetic first, then a full answer, then each criterion marked against the published wording, then the same answer moved up by changing only the language.

The arithmetic of a band 6

Task 1 is marked on four criteria of equal weight. Task Achievement is the Task 1 name for the content criterion. The other three are Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The four whole numbers are averaged, and the result is rounded to the nearest half band. How the writing band is calculated sets out the rounding rule in detail.

Four different answers that all come out at 6.0:

Look at the third row. Task Achievement at 8 means the answer selected the right features, made the right comparisons and gave a clear overview. That answer did the hard part of Task 1 correctly, and still came out at 6.0, because vocabulary and grammar were both at 5.

This matters because of where candidates put their revision time. If your Task 1 answers already have an overview and accurate figures, more practice at selecting features will not move your band. The arithmetic says the two language marks are carrying the loss.

What the marked answers in the library look like

There are eight Task 1 answers in Bandly's published sample library with all four criterion estimates on them, four Academic and four General Training. Across those eight, the Task Achievement estimate was 8 or 9 every single time. It never came back at 7 or below.

The one answer among them with an overall estimate of 6.0 is a General Training letter. Its four estimates are Task Achievement 8, Coherence and Cohesion 6, Lexical Resource 5 and Grammatical Range and Accuracy 5. That is the third row of the table above, found in a real marked answer rather than constructed to make a point.

Two cautions. These are estimates from Bandly's own scoring engine, which has not been checked against a qualified human examiner. And a Task Achievement estimate that never falls below 8 across eight different answers is telling you something about the estimator as much as about the answers, which is the honest reading of it. The useful part is not the exact number; it is that on these answers the content mark was never the lowest one.

The question

A practice Task 1 question. The figures are invented for the exercise, so do not quote them as real data.

The table below shows the average number of minutes per day spent travelling to work in four cities in 2010 and 2020. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

A band 6 answer, 163 words

The table gives information about the average amount of minutes which people spent for travelling to work in four cities in the years 2010 and 2020. Overall, the travel time increased in three cities and decreased in one city. City B had the most high travel time in both years. Firstly, in 2010 City B had the biggest number with 58 minutes, after that City D with 47 minutes. City A had 32 minutes and City C had only 24 minutes, which was the smallest number in this year. Secondly, in 2020 there was a big increasement in City C, the travel time increased from 24 minutes to 40 minutes. City A also increased and reached 45 minutes. City D stayed almost the same with 48 minutes. City B is the only city where the travel time decreased, it went down to 51 minutes. In conclusion, the travel times in these four cities became more similar in 2020 than they was in 2010.

The four marks, with the wording behind each

Total 24, which averages to 6.0.

These four marks are mine, written against the published band descriptors to make the arithmetic visible. The answer was not run through Bandly and no examiner has seen it. The descriptor wording in the right hand column is public and quoted; the numbers beside it are a reading of that wording, which is what any marking is until an examiner does it.

Task Achievement is the strong one. The answer has a real overview in the second paragraph: three cities up, one down, and the highest named. It covers all four cities in both years with accurate figures, and the final sentence adds a comparison, that the cities converged, which is a genuine feature of the data rather than a repeat of a number. That is band 7 behaviour, and it is the part most candidates worry about most.

Coherence is mechanical, not broken. The paragraphs are in a sensible order and each has one job. But Firstly and Secondly are being used to mean in 2010 and in 2020, which is not what those words mean, and that is exactly the band 6 bullet: cohesive devices used, but mechanically. The Task 1 overview is where this answer earns its content mark, and the cohesion problem sits in the two paragraphs after it.

Vocabulary is the lowest mark, and here is why. Amount of minutes should be number of minutes, because minutes are countable. Increasement is not a word. The most high is not a comparative form. Increased appears four times, travel time five, and number three. Range is limited, word formation is faulty, and precision is absent: nothing in the answer says doubled, rose sharply, remained stable or narrowed, which are the ordinary words for what this table does.

Grammar is a 6 and not a 5. There are errors, but the structures behind them are varied: a relative clause in the first sentence, a comparison, a passive. They was is wrong, and two sentences are joined by a comma where they need a full stop or a conjunction. Those errors do not stop the reader, which is the band 6 line.

The same answer at band 7

Only vocabulary and grammar are touched. Every idea, every figure and the order of the paragraphs stay exactly as they were.

The table compares the average number of minutes per day that commuters in four cities spent travelling to work in 2010 and 2020. Overall, commuting times rose in three of the four cities and fell in only one, and the four cities became markedly more alike by the end of the period. City B recorded the longest journey in both years. In 2010 the spread between the cities was wide. City B stood well above the rest at 58 minutes, followed by City D at 47, while City A recorded 32 minutes and City C the shortest journey at 24. By 2020 that gap had narrowed considerably. City C saw the steepest rise, from 24 to 40 minutes, and City A climbed to 45. City D was virtually unchanged at 48 minutes. City B was the only city to improve, falling by seven minutes to 51. In conclusion, commuting times converged over the decade, with the shortest journeys lengthening sharply while the longest shortened slightly.

The new marks are Task Achievement 7, Coherence and Cohesion 7, Lexical Resource 6 and Grammatical Range and Accuracy 7. That is 27, which averages to 6.75 and rounds to 7.0.

What produced each change:

1. Amount of minutes became number of minutes, increasement became rise, the most high became stood well above the rest. Word formation, Lexical Resource.
2. Increased four times became rose, climbed, lengthening and the steepest rise. Range, Lexical Resource.
3. Converged, narrowed, virtually unchanged, the spread between the cities added. Precision, which is the difference between the band 5 and band 7 wording in this criterion.
4. Firstly and Secondly became In 2010 and By 2020. The devices now describe the actual relationship, which is the band 7 bullet.
5. They was corrected, and the comma splice in the fourth paragraph split into two clauses. Accuracy, Grammatical Range.

Not one new idea was added, and the answer is two words longer, at 165 against 163. The Task 2 version of this page does the same exercise on an essay, and a full Task 1 answer with every criterion explained walks a different chart type through the same four marks.

What to do today

Take a Task 1 answer you have written and give it four separate marks, not one. Then write the four numbers down and add them.

If Task Achievement is your highest number, as it was in every marked answer in the library above, stop practising feature selection and start practising the vocabulary of change: rose, fell, climbed, plateaued, narrowed, converged, roughly doubled, remained stable. That is a list of about twenty words, and it is the cheapest band in Task 1 to buy.

If you are not sure how your own four marks split, paste the answer into Bandly and compare its four estimates with yours. The bands are estimates and no examiner has checked them, but the lowest of the four is the question worth asking, and the sentences the feedback points at are text you can read for yourself.