Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The plans below show the site of an airport now and how it will look after redevelopment next year.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

SOUTHWEST AIRPORT

map ielts writing task 1

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The diagram below illustrates the plan of Southwest airport now and how it looks after redevelopment in the next year.

overall, it elaborates that too much changes will occur in the future plan and it will provide more opportunities.

Firstly, in the previous plan departure and arrival have one route while in future plan both departure and arrival have two routes for the pessengers.Next, in security passport control in previous plan check-in was in left side while in future plan check-in will be in right side.

Secondly, now cafe is in departure section and located in the north side,howover in next year plan its location will be changed and placed in right bottom corner as well as new cafe also develop in passport control custom in north-east side.

In next year plan,car hiring and ATM will be develope in arrival section.

lastly, now there are 8 gates and two walkway but in next plan gates will be increase upto 18 and instead of walk away,sky train will be introduce.

So, in the future plan for next year South-west airport become more advance.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main direction of change: the airport expands from eight to eighteen gates, gains a sky train, and adds facilities such as an ATM and car hire. These are relevant features, and the response includes comparisons between the current and proposed layouts. However, several details are inaccurate or unclear. The current plan has a walkway, not “two walkway[s],” and the future plan does not give departures and arrivals “two routes”; the key change is the Y-shaped concourse. The café’s current position is not described accurately, and the new café is in Arrivals, not in passport control/customs. The overview that there will be “too much changes” and “more opportunities” is vague. A clearer overview and more precise reporting of the major layout changes would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has an overall sequence, moving from a general statement to comparisons of the terminal facilities and then a concluding sentence. Linking expressions such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “lastly” help signal this order. However, the organisation is somewhat mechanical, and the ideas are not grouped consistently by area or by the most important changes. For example, the sentence about security, passport control, and check-in combines locations in a way that makes the comparison difficult to follow. Some transitions also connect details that are not clearly related, while the final sentence repeats the general idea of future improvement rather than summarising the main changes. Grouping the concourse changes together and then describing departures and arrivals separately would make the progression clearer.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant airport vocabulary, including “departure,” “arrival,” “gates,” “check-in,” “ATM,” and “sky train,” so the reader can recognise the subject and many of the facilities. There are also attempts to describe change, such as “will be changed” and “will be introduce.” However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or imprecise: “two routes” does not describe the new concourse, “walk away” is not the correct term for “walkway,” and “car hiring” is less natural than “car hire.” Spelling and word-form errors, including “pessengers” and “develope,” are noticeable. Aim for precise map vocabulary and check spelling and collocations; this will make the descriptions more natural and reduce ambiguity.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts both simple and more extended sentence forms, including comparisons between the current and future plans. The main meaning is generally recoverable, but errors in agreement, articles, verb forms, and sentence boundaries are frequent enough to affect clarity. Examples include “too much changes,” “departure and arrival have one route,” and “gates will be increase.” The sentence beginning “Firstly” also runs into “Next” without appropriate spacing or punctuation, and several sentences lack commas after introductory phrases. Tense control is inconsistent when describing the plans, with forms such as “will be introduce” and “become” where a future form is needed. Practise accurate past/present versus future descriptions and build longer sentences around a clear subject and verb.

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