Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-21

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)

The provided diagram illustrates the process through which sugar is produced from sugar cane.

Overall, it can be observed at a glance that there are seven stages in this process, beginning with the growing of sugar cane and culminating in cooling of sugar crystals. Moreover, evaporation appears to be the most important stage in this procedure.

As the first step, sugar canes are cultivated and grown for 12-18 months. These are then harvested either traditionally ( by farmer) or by advanced agricultural harvester. Following this, sugar canes are crushed in a machine in order to extract juice, which is then purified. Limestone filter assists in this process.

At a subsequent stage, purified juice is heated in an evaporator to increase its concentration and viscosity resulting in transformation of juice into syrup. Next, the syrup is transferred into a centrifuge which separates sugar crystals from syrup, followed by drying and cooling of sugar crystals.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0

The candidate has completely misunderstood the prompt, writing about a process diagram of sugar production instead of the provided architectural plans of Southwest Airport now and after redevelopment. Because the text addresses a completely different task, it fails to meet the basic requirements of Task Achievement. There is no summary of the airport maps, no mention of the terminal modifications, the expansion of gates from 1-8 to 1-18, the addition of the sky train, or any of the layout changes shown in the visual data. Consequently, this falls under a band 1.0 or 2.0 descriptor for failing to respond to the prompt, although the language produced itself relates to a different topic.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Although the response is completely off-topic for the prompt provided, the internal organisation of the text is actually quite clear and logical. The student uses a standard process-description structure, including a clear introduction with an overview statement ('Overall, it can be observed at a glance that there are seven stages...'), followed by logically sequenced paragraphs detailing the steps using appropriate transition markers like 'As the first step', 'Following this', 'At a subsequent stage', and 'Next'. Paragraphing is handled properly for a process description, and cohesive devices are used without being mechanical.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used in the response is reasonably wide and appropriate for a process description task, even though it is applied to the wrong topic. The writer successfully incorporates subject-specific terms such as 'cultivated', 'harvested', 'agricultural harvester', 'evaporator', 'concentration', 'viscosity', 'centrifuge', and 'sugar crystals'. There are occasional awkward phrasings or minor omissions (e.g., 'by farmer' instead of 'by farmers' or 'by the farmer'), but overall the lexical range demonstrates adequate control for a competent user.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The grammatical range includes a good mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating passive voice constructions which are essential for process descriptions (e.g., 'sugar canes are cultivated', 'juice is heated', 'the syrup is transferred'). Sentence structures are generally well-controlled. There are minor grammatical errors such as missing articles ('by farmer' instead of 'by a farmer', 'resulting in transformation' instead of 'resulting in the transformation'), but these errors do not impede communication and the majority of sentences are grammatically sound.

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

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