Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-30

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 illustrate the current structure of the centre of a small town called Islip as well as the plans for its future develpment.

Overall, the construction of a ring road has been planned, while there will be the addition of two new housings. The northern row of shops will be converted to bus station, shopping centre, car parking and new housing. The main road will only for pedestrains, whearas school and housing will remains unchanged.

FIrst of all, there is a plan of dual carriageway as a ring road around shops and housing. It is also decided, the shops at nothern end will replace by a bus station along with a shopping centre, at nothern east of the town centre will have a car park with a new housing linked with ring road. The main road between the shops now will be converted to a walking track for locals.

In contrast, the southern shops will remain constant, while the housing behind them will shifted to western south and opposite to this housing there will be a new housing near park. Futhermore, the size of park will shrink, whearas the school size will increased. The housing opposite to school remains unchanged.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student covers all parts of the task well, successfully identifying the main features and making relevant comparisons between the two maps. An overview is present in the second paragraph, outlining the ring road, the removal of northern shops, and the pedestrianisation of the main road. Key changes such as the addition of the dual carriageway, bus station, shopping centre, and car park are reported accurately based on the visual data. However, there are minor inaccuracies in reporting spatial relationships, such as stating the northern shops will be replaced by a bus station and shopping centre, but missing that the car park is also part of that northern zone. Ideas are generally well supported, though some minor details are slightly confused or generalised. Overall, the response meets the requirements for a Band 6.5 to 7.0, and solidly fits into Band 6.0 due to some under-developed specifics.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response is organised into four paragraphs, including an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs detailing the changes. There is a clear overall progression from general features to specific geographical transformations. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Overall', 'First of all', 'In contrast', and 'Futhermore'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, and paragraphing could be structured more logically. For instance, the overview paragraph contains specific details like 'The northern row of shops will be converted to bus station...', which overlaps heavily with the body paragraphs. Additionally, minor referencing errors occur, such as 'opposite to this housing there will be a new housing'. These issues place the response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student attempts a range of vocabulary relevant to the task, including terms like 'develpment', 'construction', 'converted', 'pedestrians', and 'dual carriageway'. There are, however, noticeable spelling mistakes such as 'develpment', 'pedestrains', 'FIrst', 'nothern', 'at northern east', 'shifted', and 'Futhermore'. Word choice and collocation are also occasionally imprecise, such as 'two new housings' (housing is uncountable), 'will replace by' (passive voice error), and 'the school size will increased'. While the lexical range is adequate to communicate the main ideas, these frequent mechanical and lexical errors prevent the score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using passive voice ('will be converted', 'will remain constant') and subordinate clauses ('while there will be the addition', 'as the ring road'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak with frequent errors throughout the text. Examples include missing articles ('to bus station'), subject-verb agreement issues ('housing will remains'), incorrect prepositions ('at nothern east'), and persistent tense/voice errors ('the shops at nothern end will replace by'). Punctuation and sentence boundaries are generally maintained, but the high density of structural errors places the grammar score at Band 5.5.

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