Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-25
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The diagram below shows the manufacturing process for making sugar from sugar cane.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
How sugar is produced from sugar cane
Student answer (Band 5.0)
The diagram below illustrates the production process of sugar using sugar cane.
Overall the diagram shows the process of making sugar step-by-step from growing sugar cane till the production of ready made sugar.
Regarding the process firstly the sugar canes was fully riped between 12 to 18 months. Followed by the harvesting which was done using both man power and modern agricultural machines. Then the harvested sugar canes are put in a machine and crushed to make the sugar cane juice.
Additionally, the collected juice were put in the lime stone filter to seggrate the non-consumable particles. Then the seggrated juice were put inside a chamber with fire lit from the bottom, where the evaporation takes place and turned the juice into syrup. Followed by the centrifuge process where the sugar crystals where separated from the syrup. lastly the separated sugar crystal are cooled and dried for the market.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The student successfully identifies and summarises all seven main stages of the sugar manufacturing process, starting from growing and harvesting through to crushing, purifying, evaporating, centrifuging, and finally drying and cooling. A clear overview is provided at the beginning, outlining the scope of the process from start to finish. However, a critical limitation is that the text contains 149 words, falling just one word short of the 150-word minimum requirement. Under official IELTS marking guidelines, this slight under-length violation requires a downward adjustment in the Task Achievement score, preventing the response from reaching a higher band despite its accurate coverage of the visual data.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response has a clear overall arrangement, progressing logically through the linear stages of the manufacturing process from introduction to the final step. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the introduction, the overview, and the body stages, although the paragraphs are somewhat fragmented. Cohesive devices such as 'Regarding the process', 'firstly', 'Followed by', 'Then', 'Additionally', and 'lastly' are employed to guide the reader through the sequence. However, some cohesive links feel mechanical or are structurally repetitive, and referencing is occasionally imprecise, such as the transition into the centrifuge and drying stages.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range suitable for describing a sequential process, successfully incorporating terms such as 'manufacturing process', 'agricultural machines', 'evaporation', 'syrup', and 'sugar crystals'. There are, however, several notable spelling and word-choice errors that detract from precision, including 'riped' instead of 'ripened', 'man power' instead of 'manual labour', 'lime stone' instead of 'limestone', 'seggrate' instead of 'segregate' (and repeated as 'seggrated'), and 'ready made sugar'. These minor lexical slips and spelling inaccuracies limit the score to Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and passive constructions (e.g., 'the harvested sugar canes are put in a machine', 'where the evaporation takes place'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors and tense inconsistencies throughout the text, such as 'the sugar canes was fully riped' (subject-verb agreement and past tense error), 'the collected juice were put' (plural/singular mismatch), and 'turned the juice into syrup' (awkward coordination with previous clauses). Punctuation is also weak, notably missing periods or commas at natural clausal boundaries.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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