User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 8.0 Example

Original task prompt, user essay, band score, and related examples in the same report workspace.

183 words AcademicTask 1Bar Chart

Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

Identify the category that dominates throughout: social welfare leads in all three years, reaching its highest figure in 2014.
Separate steady increases from fluctuating or recovering patterns: health and wildlife rise each year, whereas social welfare falls before rebounding.
Notice categories that finish at or near their starting values: education returns to 8, while environment ends at 7 compared with 8 initially.

Suggested structure

Introduce the chart by naming the measure, the six charity types and the 2012–2014 period.
Give an overview identifying the largest category and the broad direction of change.
Describe social welfare separately because its figures are much higher and fluctuate notably.
Group the remaining categories by pattern, comparing their starting, middle and final figures.
End with a concise comparison of which categories finished higher, level or lower than in 2012.

Useful vocabulary & examples

a steady upward path: A consistent increase across successive years.
Health followed a steady upward path, rising from 6 to 9.
fell before recovering: Decreased at first and then rose again.
Environment fell to 5 before recovering to 7.
returned to its starting figure: Ended at the same value as at the beginning.
Education returned to its starting figure of 8 in 2014.
edged up: Increased by a small amount.
Arts edged up from 3 to 4 in the final year.

Task Prompt

Task 1: The chart below shows the donation given to six different types of charity by one company from 2012 to 2014.

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 8.0

The bar chart illustrates the grants allocated to six different types of financial aid by a business from 2012 to 2014. Overall, while charitable benefaction received the highest level of funding in terms of social welfare, donations to the Arts consistently accounted for the lowest amount. On one hand, grants in 2014 generally reached the highest figures in most categories. Social welfare dominated throughout, at 22 in 2012, dipping to 16 in 2013 before climbing to 24 in 2014. By contrast, the Arts received the least, with 3 in both 2012 and 2013 and 4 in the final year.

Education and Environment were funded at similar levels. Education stood at 8 in 2012, fell to 6 the following year and returned to 8 in 2014. Environment also began at 8, but declined more sharply to 5 in 2013, then recovered to 7. Health followed a different pattern: its allocation rose steadily from 6 to 7 and then 9, making it the second-largest recipient in 2014. Wildlife attracted smaller grants, increasing gradually from 3 in 2012 to 4 in 2013 and 5 in 2014.

Targeted Improvement Tips

Revise the overview to say that social welfare received the most funding throughout, while the Arts and wildlife were among the lowest-funded categories; this avoids overlooking their 2012 tie.

Use the same accurate labels throughout: “charity categories” for the groups and “donations” or “funding” for the amounts.

Group the detailed comparisons by trend: describe social welfare first, compare education with environment, then report the steady increases for health and wildlife.

AI Feedback

Overall Band

8.0

Excellent

Words

183

Type

Bar Chart

Criteria Breakdown

Task Achievement

7.5 Band

The response covers all six categories and reports their main changes; for example, “Health followed a different pattern” is supported by its rise from 6 to 9. It also identifies social welfare as the leading recipient. However, saying the Arts “consistently accounted for the lowest amount” is slightly too absolute because it ties with wildlife in 2012. Next, make the overview more precise by describing the Arts as among the lowest-funded categories.

Coherence & Cohesion

7.0 Band

The answer moves from an overview to comparisons across the years, then groups education and environment before describing health and wildlife. This makes the main trends easy to follow. The transition “On one hand” is not balanced by an “on the other hand” point, so it feels incomplete. Use a direct transition such as “In 2014,” and keep related categories together in clearly separated overview and detail paragraphs.

Lexical Resource

6.5 Band

There is useful variety in terms such as “dominated,” “declined,” “recovered” and “rose steadily,” which help describe the trends efficiently. Some opening expressions, especially “charitable benefaction” and “types of financial aid,” are either unnatural or imprecise for a chart about charity donations. Prefer standard, accurate wording such as “charitable donations” and “types of charity,” then reserve less common vocabulary for cases where it fits the context.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

7.0 Band

The answer uses a range of structures, including the contrast in “while charitable benefaction received…” and the colon-led explanation “Health followed a different pattern: its allocation rose steadily…”. Tense is generally consistent when describing the past figures, and the comparisons are understandable. The main refinement is sentence control: the opening overview and “On one hand” construction are awkward rather than clearly linked. Use shorter, direct overview sentences and check that each transition introduces a complete contrast.

Topic Band Distribution

Band 9.03 examples

Band 8.03 examples

Band 7.03 examples

Band 6.03 examples

Band 5.03 examples

Band 4.03 examples

Practice this prompt

Use the same topic in Hack Admission AI and compare your answer with this example.

Check your answer on this topic Browse all examples