Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-07

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 6.5)

The maps illustrate the current outlook of the centre of a town named Islip, and how it will look in the future.

Overall, the whole infrastructure of the town will be converted from a traditional design to a modern and well-established design with addition of a bus station, dual carriageway, and a car park.

In the current map, on the both sides of the main road multiple shops are located, with countryside to the north and housing on the south side. There is a park on south east side of the town connected with road and school on the south west side. A specific area is allotted to the housing in the middle of the south side of the town.

In the map of planned development, school and the housing in the south will remain unchanged, while the town will have a addition of a circular dual carriagway road all around the other facilities. Moreover, a new housing will be constructed on the north east side of the circle with a car park, shopping center, and a bus station on its left side. The main road will be converted into pedestrians only, whereas shops on the left side of the main road will remain the same. A new housing is planned along side the park in the circle of dual carriagway.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response covers both maps and gives a clear overview of the main transformation, noting the new transport facilities and the pedestrian-only central road. It also identifies several important changes, including the retention of the school and southern housing and the addition of new housing. Most locations are broadly accurate, but some details are imprecise: the planned bus station, shopping centre and car park are north of the pedestrian street, while the new housing is northeast of the car park; the final sentence does not clearly distinguish the new housing from the reduced park. The claim that the whole infrastructure will be converted overstates the change, since the southern shops and some existing housing remain. More precise comparisons of what is retained, replaced and relocated would strengthen the account.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear four-part progression: introduction, overview, description of the current map and description of the plan. This makes the comparison easy to follow, and linking expressions such as “Overall,” “Moreover” and “whereas” help signal relationships between ideas. The main limitation is that some references are vague or potentially confusing. For example, “shops on the left side of the main road” does not specify that these are the southern shops, and “A new housing is planned alongside the park” leaves the relationship between the new housing and the park unclear. Grouping the planned features by location—north and south of the pedestrian street—and using more precise references would make the progression more controlled.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for describing maps and includes useful terms such as “dual carriageway,” “pedestrians only,” “constructed” and “remain unchanged.” There is also some variety in how changes are expressed. However, several choices are imprecise or unnatural for this task: “current outlook” is not a natural way to describe the present layout, “well-established design” is an unsupported evaluation, and “addition of” is less idiomatic than “addition of a” or “introduction of.” The spelling “carriagway” is also incorrect, and “a new housing” uses the wrong form of the noun. Aim for precise map vocabulary and accurate collocations rather than evaluative descriptions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response uses a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast with “while” and a clause introduced by “whereas.” Meaning is generally clear, but some grammatical errors remain. Examples include “on the both sides,” where the article is misplaced, “a addition,” which requires the correct article, and “A new housing,” where the noun construction is incorrect. The sentence beginning “In the map of planned development” also contains a long sequence of features that would be clearer if divided or structured more carefully. Continue using complex sentences, but check articles, noun forms and sentence boundaries, and ensure that each sentence expresses a clear relationship between the locations described.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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