Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-30

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 5.5)

The process chart illustrates about how sugar manufacture with the help of sugar cane.

Overall, the process contains seven stages from the harvesting of sugar cane to made sugar crystal.

To initiate with cultivation of seed, after the planting of seeds it take 12 to18 months to became mature sugar canes. In second stage, man made cut their canes from their roots and transfer to the machine for bifurcates leaves and surgar cane stick. All the sugar canes crushing in the big mixture and drop out the juice in big vessle.

In stage forth, before it enters in heating process, it purifing juice in limestone filter. Further, juice get collect in big jar to give heat and evaporates rest amount of steam. In stage five, sypur is ready and with help of centrifuge it separates sugar crystals from the syrup. Finally, it put in large container for drying and cooling.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response covers all main stages of the sugar manufacturing process, starting from cultivation and harvesting through to drying and cooling. A clear overview is provided, noting that there are seven stages. However, some details are slightly inaccurate or awkwardly phrased, such as stating that people cut canes in the second stage while ignoring the mechanical harvesting option, and mentioning seeds when the diagram shows growing sugar canes. Despite these minor misinterpretations and lack of deep comparison, the candidate successfully identifies and reports the primary features of the process diagram, satisfying the core requirements of Task 1 at a Band 6.0 level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text is generally coherent and follows a chronological progression through the diagram stages, aided by sequencing markers such as 'To initiate with', 'In second stage', and 'Finally'. Paragraphing is attempted, separating the introduction, overview, and body steps. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, as seen in awkward transitions like 'In stage forth, before it enters in heating process, it purifing juice'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical links between sentences can be abrupt. Overall, the organizational structure is adequate for an overall coherent arrangement, earning a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with attempts to use process-specific terminology such as 'cultivation', 'evaporator', 'centrifuge', and 'crystals'. However, there are frequent word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'sugar manufacture' instead of 'sugar manufacturing', 'became mature' instead of 'become mature', 'sypur' instead of 'syrup', and 'purifing' instead of 'purifying'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they reflect a limited and occasionally inaccurate lexical control, placing the response firmly at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but grammatical accuracy is weak throughout. There are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('it take 12 to18 months'), tense inconsistencies, missing prepositions ('enters in heating'), and spelling mistakes ('vessle', 'sypur'). Complex structures are often attempted but faulty, such as 'The process chart illustrates about how sugar manufacture with the help of sugar cane.' Because these errors are frequent and cause some difficulty for the reader without completely obscuring the meaning, a Band 5.0 is appropriate.

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