Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-03

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 blueprints illustrate the transformation of airport that how it look now and how it will look after renovation next year.

Overall, it can be seen that there are fewer facilities are available at present. However, there will be multiple new facilities are available after redevelopment with large area.

To commence with, there are two main department, one is departures and another one is arrivals while, security and passport control located in departure area. In addition, cafe and check-in facilities are presented at same department, whereas another passport control and customs located at arrival area. Also, there are total eight gates located at south corner with walkway.

After the redevelopment, the size of airport will increase after renovation with total 18 gates sky train facility while, the two department remain unchanged but two new facilities are available after development. One is bag drop will located at departure area while, car hire locate at arrivals. In addition, shops are also available at departure area.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by outlining the main features of the airport before and after redevelopment, satisfying the basic requirements of the prompt. You successfully highlight key changes such as the expansion of the gates, the addition of the sky train, and new facilities like shops, bag drop, and car hire. However, some ideas and details remain under-developed or vague. For instance, stating that 'the two department remain unchanged' overlooks the significant internal reconfiguration of both departures and arrivals, such as the relocation of check-in and passport control. To move to a higher level, you should provide a more thorough and precise reporting of the visual data without over-generalising or missing key spatial shifts.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure that separates the introduction, the current layout, the future layout, and an overall summary. Progression is generally maintained through sequencing phrases such as 'To commence with' and 'After the redevelopment'. However, cohesion is at times mechanical and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the vague transitional phrase 'while, security and passport control located in departure area'. Furthermore, repetitive sentence openings limit the natural flow of the text. To achieve a higher band, you need to employ a wider and more flexible range of cohesive devices and ensure that referencing between sentences is tighter and more seamless.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing you to convey basic comparisons and features using terms like 'transformation', 'redevelopment', and 'facilities'. You attempt less common vocabulary such as 'blueprint' and 'renovation', but these are accompanied by lexical inaccuracies and word-choice errors, including awkward phrasing like 'two main department' instead of 'departments' and 'car hire locate' instead of 'is located'. There are also minor awkward collocations throughout the description. To reach a higher score, you should broaden your lexical range and demonstrate more precise control over word forms, spellings, and collocations suitable for academic writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You utilise a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and introductory dependent clauses, such as 'The blueprints illustrate the transformation of airport that how it look now...'. However, your writing contains frequent grammatical errors, particularly with missing articles ('the transformation of airport'), incorrect verb forms ('how it look now'), missing auxiliary verbs ('bag drop will located'), and faulty prepositional use. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they persist across multiple sentences and restrict the variety of error-free structures. To improve, you need to exercise greater control over basic grammatical agreements, verb structures, and article usage in complex sentence patterns.

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

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