Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-07
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
The maps below show the centre of a small town called Islip as it is now, and plans for its development.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The given maps provides the information regarding the islip town centres current design and also planned development design for future.
Existing town centre is designed on main road surrounded with shops on north and south sides of main road, behind south sided shops the area was used as residential area, and the park was located on east side of residential town house, and also there was school on west side to houses.
The planned renovated islip town centre map shows that they change the whole infrastructure of islip town centre by making dual carriageways, and also the pedestrians way only, on the north side of pedestrians they makes and bus station, shopping mall, car parking, and build new town houses, and on the south side they make shops, and behind shops the old houses was located, in addition to utilise space more efficiently, they build new town houses, and on the east side of newly constructed houses, there was park for kids to play, and behind the dual carriageway school and houses was located.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response covers the main features of the maps, identifying the key changes such as the introduction of the dual carriageway and the relocation of amenities. However, the description is somewhat repetitive and lacks a clear overview or summary of the most significant trends. While the student identifies the changes, the reporting is purely descriptive rather than analytical. To reach a higher band, the student should group information more logically (e.g., transport, residential, and commercial zones) and provide a clearer summary statement in the introduction or conclusion that highlights the transformation from a simple layout to a more complex, infrastructure-heavy town centre.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organised into paragraphs, but the flow between sentences is often mechanical. The use of cohesive devices is limited, relying heavily on 'and' or 'also' to connect ideas, which makes the text feel like a list of observations rather than a cohesive report. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as 'behind south sided shops the area was used as residential area', which lacks precise spatial markers. Paragraphing is present, but the internal structure of the paragraphs could be improved by using more varied transition words to guide the reader through the spatial changes.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the precision and variety required for higher bands. The student uses basic terms like 'make', 'build', and 'houses' repeatedly. There is an attempt to use some topic-specific vocabulary such as 'infrastructure', 'dual carriageways', and 'pedestrians way', but these are often used with minor collocation errors (e.g., 'pedestrians way' instead of 'pedestrianised zone'). To improve, the student should focus on using more sophisticated verbs and nouns related to urban planning and spatial description to avoid repetition.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent errors in tense and subject-verb agreement. For example, 'maps provides' (should be 'maps provide') and 'old houses was located' (should be 'were located'). The use of tenses is inconsistent, switching between present and past when describing the current and future plans. While the meaning is generally clear, these grammatical slips occur frequently enough to impact the overall fluency of the writing. Increasing the variety of complex structures while ensuring basic agreement rules are followed would significantly improve the score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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