Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-16

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

Student answer (Band 5.0)

So the Southwest Airport now has check-in area that is in every Airport and this airport now has some cafe area where people can eat or drink whatever they want when they are hungry or they can just chill and sit there, it also a walkway so people can walk for miles and don't get tired while holding heavy luggages and this airport has total eight gates from where you can enter or exit, there are two main area departure and arrival, there is security passport control in the departure area and there is passport control customs in the arrival area amf there is cafe and chek-in in the departure area now but after the development there will be eighteen gates in total and there will be car hire, sky train, ATM, bag drop, cafe and chek-in, so as you enter in the airport there are some shops and after entering in the departure area you will see security passport control and after crossing it there is a cafe, a bag drop and chek-in, when you enter the arrival area there is passport control customs and after crossing that there is a cafe, ATM and a car hire and at the end there is exit gates

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response attempts to describe the airport plans but fails to provide a clear overview or a structured comparison. The information is presented in a stream-of-consciousness style, making it difficult to identify the 'main features' as required by the task. While the student mentions some changes, such as the increase in gates and the addition of facilities like the 'sky train' and 'car hire', the lack of a formal introduction, clear grouping, and a summary paragraph significantly limits the response. The description is largely a list of features rather than an analytical summary of the redevelopment. To improve, you must group information logically (e.g., current layout vs. future layout) and provide a clear overview of the most significant changes.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response lacks paragraphing entirely, which is a fundamental requirement for a coherent report. The text is composed of a few very long, run-on sentences connected by commas and 'and', which creates a repetitive and mechanical flow. There is a lack of cohesive devices to signal transitions between the current state and the future state. For example, the transition between the description of the current airport and the future redevelopment is abrupt. To achieve a higher score, you must use clear paragraph breaks to separate the introduction, the overview, and the detailed body paragraphs, and use a wider variety of linking words to guide the reader through the information.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple terms like 'area', 'there is', and 'enter'. There is little attempt to use precise terminology related to maps or urban planning (e.g., 'terminal', 'layout', 'expansion', 'relocated', 'integrated'). Spelling errors such as 'luggages' (which is an uncountable noun) and 'chek-in' are present. The phrasing is often informal and lacks the academic tone required for Task 1. To improve, focus on learning topic-specific vocabulary related to describing changes and locations, and ensure you use nouns correctly in terms of countability.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The grammar is characterized by a lack of sentence boundaries, with the entire response consisting of only two or three extremely long, run-on sentences. This makes the text difficult to read and obscures the meaning. There are frequent errors in punctuation, such as the absence of full stops, and basic grammatical slips like 'it also a walkway' (missing verb) and 'there is cafe' (missing article). The range of structures is very limited, relying almost exclusively on 'there is/are' constructions. To improve, you must focus on using full stops to create distinct sentences and practice using a variety of complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses or passive voice, to describe the changes.

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