Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-13

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 provide key infomation about a small city center called Islip in the current version and the expectation plan for development.

Overall. It is clear from the graph that the center of Islip town illustrate different changes and addition facilities and expandations

to begin with, the northen eras used to be a countryside and shops, while in plan they demolish the countryside and replace the shops with varity of facilities such as bus station in the northwest,shooping centre, car park and new houses in the northeast of the town with new exite road, aslo they expanded the roads in trangular way with two exites in the west side and the east side of the centre town.

In the south erea it is still a resedential but the park extanded,and the main road become for pedestrians only, they planned to add new facilite which is dual carriageway in the southwest , and the school remained unchanged,

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You identify the broad purpose of the maps and report several important changes, including the replacement of northern shops with facilities, the pedestrian-only central street, and the school remaining in place. However, the overview is vague: “different changes and addition facilities” does not clearly summarise the main transformation. Some details are inaccurate or unclear. The park is reduced in size, not expanded, and the dual carriageway forms a loop around the centre rather than being a new facility only in the southwest. You also omit key changes, such as the bus station, shopping centre and car park replacing the northern shops in a west-to-east sequence, and the southern housing changes. A clearer overview and more precise comparisons would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic overall sequence: an introduction, an attempted overview, and descriptions of the northern and southern areas. This gives the reader some sense of how the plan is organised. However, progression is not consistently clear, partly because the overview is incomplete and the two main description sentences contain many details joined together. For example, the sentence beginning “to begin with” moves from countryside to shops, facilities, housing and roads without clear separation. Linking phrases such as “while” and “aslo” are used, but connections between changes are sometimes difficult to follow. Use distinct paragraphs for the overview and the main comparisons, and group related features in shorter, logically ordered sentences.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant map vocabulary, including “countryside,” “pedestrians only,” “car park,” “residential” and “remained unchanged,” so the topic is generally recognisable. However, the range is limited and several spelling and word-choice errors make parts difficult to understand, such as “infomation,” “northen eras,” “shooping centre,” “exite road” and “expandations.” Some expressions are also imprecise: “the park extanded” reverses the map information, while “roads in trangular way” does not accurately describe the dual-carriageway loop. Aim for accurate, conventional terms such as “area,” “facilities,” “expanded” or “reduced,” and check spelling carefully. More precise vocabulary for location and change would help communicate comparisons clearly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts both simple and more extended sentence forms, including a comparison with “while” and a clause introduced by “which.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in sentence boundaries, articles, agreement and verb forms frequently affect clarity. For example, “Overall. It is clear…” uses an incorrect full stop, and “the center of Islip town illustrate” has subject–verb disagreement. The opening phrase “the expectation plan for development” also lacks a clear grammatical construction. Several long sentences combine multiple ideas without reliable punctuation, making relationships between features hard to follow. Practise accurate basic sentence patterns first, then connect them with controlled clauses, checking tense, articles and agreement in each sentence.

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