Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-02
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 maps illustrate the developments made inn plans from earlier to the latest.
The road is now on the outer circle of the development with dual carriageway feature,on the north east side bus is located just next to the shopping centre.The car parking on the north east side allowing easy access to park the vehicles also avoiding congestion.Main road in the old map is now converted into the pedestrians only area.Two new housing is also introduced near the north east and south east area along with he park in the curve of the road.The school is on the same location on the south west corner of the plan the only changes made is now the road is also connecting the housing which make easy access for the people to travell around.
overall now the map is more organised and have dedicated spaces for every features also the road itself has two way access for the cummuters .
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the task by identifying the main features of the maps, such as the new dual carriageway, the conversion of the main road to pedestrians only, and the rearrangement of shops into a bus station, shopping centre, and car park. However, some areas are under-developed or lack precise spatial descriptions. For instance, the reference to 'Two new housing is also introduced' is vague regarding exact locations and layout changes. The overview provided at the end touches on general changes like organization and dedicated spaces, but it could be expanded to better summarize the key overall transformations.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The response presents a coherent overall arrangement and attempts to sequence the spatial information logically, starting from the outer roads and moving inward. However, cohesion is often faulty or mechanical, and referencing is not always clear, leading to a lack of smooth progression. For example, sentences run into one another without adequate transitional devices or clear paragraph breaks, as seen in the dense block of text describing multiple features. Paragraphing is under-utilized, which impacts the overall readability and logical flow of the report.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
An adequate range of vocabulary is attempted for the task, with terms like 'dual carriageway', 'pedestrians only', and 'congestion'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'inn plans' instead of 'in plans', 'cummuters' instead of 'commuters', and grammatical word-form slips like 'Two new housing'. Spelling mistakes are present but do not seriously impede communication, allowing the reader to grasp the general features of the proposed town development.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control is inconsistent. There are several grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('Two new housing is'), missing articles ('the car parking... allowing', 'on the north east side bus is located'), and run-on sentences lacking proper punctuation. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the writing from reaching a higher band level.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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