Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-27
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 provided maps compare how southwest airport looks like and what facilities will offers after a year when the renovation work is done. Overall, the southwest airport will be expanded and will provide more facilities and easy accessibility for passengers after the development work is done.
To commence, the current map of southwest airport suggest that, there is only eight gates for passengers to access to airport and walkway, while in pre-planed map the gates area will be expanded and will have eighteen gates and sky train will introduse for passenger, make it more to access to airport. The entrance of the current map of airport is quite simple with no facility while the new one will have shops as in the entrance.
Going into the depth, in present there are only a cafe and check-in in the deparrture section and the arrivals section is empty with no facility, while after renovation the airport will offer plenty facilitise such as cafe, ATM, bag drop, check-in and car hire. while, security, passport control, customs clearance will remain unchanged.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The student attempts to cover the main changes shown in the plans, such as the increase in gates from 8 to 18, the addition of the sky train, shops, and various new facilities in the departure and arrival zones. However, the overview is rather basic, and some descriptions lack precision. For instance, stating that the arrivals section was previously 'empty with no facility' overlooks passport control and customs which are clearly marked on the map. Furthermore, the details regarding the layout changes are somewhat generalised. Nevertheless, the response addresses all parts of the visual data by comparing the current and future layouts. This aligns with Band 6 descriptors, where relevant ideas are presented, but some features are under-developed or inaccurately described.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The response is arranged coherently with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and an overall summary. The student uses basic cohesive devices and transitional phrases such as 'To commence' and 'Going into the depth' to guide the reader through the comparison. However, some linking devices are unnatural or awkwardly phrased, and referencing is occasionally faulty, such as 'what facilities will offers' and 'pre-planed map'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate the introduction, the gate/concourse modifications, and the terminal facility changes. Overall arrangement is logical, placing this submission firmly at Band 6.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases like 'renovation work', 'accessibility', and 'unmodified'. However, there are frequent word choice and collocation errors, such as 'southwest airport looks like and what facilities will offers', 'pre-planed map', and 'plenty facilitise'. Spelling errors like 'deparrture' and 'facilitise' also occur. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main points, the lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making Band 5.5 a fair assessment.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writing contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('what facilities will offers', 'map... suggest that'), missing articles ('there is only eight gates', 'at the entrance'), and incorrect prepositions ('in present', 'at the entrance' versus 'as in the entrance'). Although these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to restrict the score to Band 5.0, where frequent errors in complex structures often cause difficulty for the reader.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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