Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-19

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 5.5)

The plan depicts the transformation of the southeast airport after the development process in following year.

Overall, development is going to increase the number of services available in the airport including bag drop, ATM, sky train and car hire. Similarly, there will be addition of more gate in the current available gates of the airport. Furthermore, the people will be provided with the shopping facility in the updated version.

Prior to development, airport consists of security, passport control, check-in and cafe on a departures terminal. While, arrivals terminal only consists of passport control and customs additionaly, there were only 8 gates availabe and there were only walways available to transist via the gates.

Concurrently, the development phase added service of check-in along with other available services on departures terminal. On the other hand, facility of cafe, ATM and car hire is added on arrivals terminal along with other services available. In addition to that, 10 more gates were in in the reconstructed structure of the airport and the service of sky train is added, that is going to make the transit of people easy via 18 gates of the airport.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student attempts to cover the main features of the airport transformation, noting the addition of shops, a sky train, car hire, and an increased number of gates from 8 to 18. However, there are notable inaccuracies and omissions in reading the map. For example, the student states that the departures terminal did not have check-in prior to development, whereas the 'NOW' plan clearly shows a check-in counter. Furthermore, the overall overview is somewhat basic, and the naming of 'southeast airport' is incorrect based on the title 'SOUTHWEST AIRPORT'. The response addresses the task partially, leading to a band score of 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is structured into four paragraphs, following a standard introduction, overview, and body paragraph format. Cohesive devices are used, but some transitions are clumsy or unnatural, such as 'While, arrivals terminal only consists' and 'Concurrently, the development phase added'. Paragraphing is logical, contrasting the 'prior to development' state with the 'after development' state, but mechanical cohesion and awkward referencing limit the flow. This fits the Band 6 descriptor well.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, attempting some less common words and topic-specific items such as 'transformation', 'reconstructed structure', and 'transist'. However, there are several word choice, spelling, and morphological errors, such as 'following year' instead of 'the following year', 'availabe', 'walways', 'transist', and 'in in'. Less common lexical items are attempted with noticeable inaccuracy. Therefore, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There are multiple grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing articles ('the airport', 'the departures terminal'), incorrect preposition usage ('on a departures terminal'), and tense confusion ('development is going to increase... airport consists... development phase added'). These frequent errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, aligning closely with a Band 5 descriptor.

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

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