Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-17

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 development plans below illustrates about the location of an airport now and how it will look after the reconstruction next year.

Overall, the plans below shows the site of an airport now and after the redevelopment that what changes they had made. Although, current airport contains limited sections where the umpcoming hold large amount of departments as well as services.

On the one hand, the current airport contains limited services and also it is small in size. It has one departure gate, one arrival gate, a cafe, a check-in gate and eight different gates where planes are parked.

On the other hand, the second airport reconstructed in a very huge amount of area where it contain many services which was not their earlier. In has one checki-in gate, a cafe and gates from one to eighteen which are more from the earlier and holds many other services with can be benefical for the passengers like a service of Sky train, people can hire car from outside and also it has an ATM.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the broad contrast between the airport’s current layout and its planned expansion, and you mention the increase from eight gates to eighteen as well as new facilities such as the sky train, ATM and car hire. These are relevant main features. However, the overview is vague and partly repeats the task rather than summarising the key changes. Some details are inaccurate or unclear: the current plan has departures and arrivals areas, not “one departure gate” and “one arrival gate,” and the future plan adds bag drop and shops, which you omit. Develop the comparison by describing the Y-shaped concourse and the changes to check-in and café locations. The response meets the task length requirement; 10 words copied from the prompt were not counted.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an attempted overview, and separate paragraphs for the current and future airport. The contrastive phrases “On the one hand” and “On the other hand” help signal the two stages. However, the overview largely repeats the introduction, so the progression from general summary to specific comparisons is not clear. Some links are mechanical, and the long final sentence combines several facilities without showing their locations or relationships. Organise the body around comparable features—for example, terminal services first, then the concourse and gates—and use clear references such as “the existing terminal” and “the proposed layout” to guide the reader.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant task vocabulary, including “redevelopment,” “services,” “gates,” “Sky train” and “ATM,” so the reader can understand the general subject. However, the range is limited and several choices are inaccurate or awkward for describing a plan. “One departure gate” and “one arrival gate” confuse terminal areas with aircraft gates, while “reconstructed in a very huge amount of area” does not naturally describe an expanded layout. There are also noticeable spelling and word-form errors, such as “umpcoming,” “checki-in,” “benefical” and “their” for “there.” Use precise location and change vocabulary, such as “terminal area,” “concourse,” “extended,” “relocated” and “added.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrastive opening with “Although” and a sentence explaining what passengers can use. However, some errors in sentence structure and agreement make parts difficult to follow. For example, “The development plans below illustrates” has a plural subject with a singular verb, and “the plans below shows” repeats this agreement problem. “Although, current airport contains…” is not a complete, correctly punctuated clause, while “where it contain” and “which was not” show errors in verb agreement. The final sentence also joins ideas awkwardly. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement and complete clause structures, then use shorter sentences to report locations and changes clearly.

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