Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-20

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 6.5)

The floorplans illustrates the current area of Southwest Airport and how it will be seen after its renovation in the coming year.

Overall, the external building of the airport in the existing layout will remain the same in the next year with certain changes in its internal structure. The most prominent development will be a huge increase in the number of gates in the new layout.

Starting from the North, the recent plan of the Southwest Airport consists of the two walkaways with 8 gates for entrance and exit. However, the new layout shows a total of 18 gates with no walkaways in between but two sky trains. Moving towards south, we can find security passport contron office on the left and passport control customs office on the right. These offices are exactly same in the new floor plan as well.

To the south of the security passport contro office, the cafe and the check-in counter also changed positions in the new plan. Cafe has moved to the south of the airport near departure lane. A bag drop is also installed at the place of check-in and he check-in has taken the place of cafe in the center. Moving towards the south of passport control custom office, another cafe will be opened alongside ATM. An extended car park is also present in the new plan near arrivals lane.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You identify the main transformation clearly: the gate capacity rises from eight to eighteen, and you note several changes to facilities in both the departures and arrivals areas. The overview also correctly highlights that the terminal’s overall structure is largely retained while its interior is redeveloped. This reaches beyond a basic list of features, but some details are unclear or inaccurate. The current plan has one walkway, not “two walkaways,” and the redevelopment shows one central sky train, not two. The security/passport-control and passport-control/customs areas are also not described with their correct left-right positions. “Extended car park” misidentifies the new car-hire area. To strengthen the response further, report the Y-shaped concourse and describe the relocated check-in, bag drop and shops more precisely.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response is organised into a clear introduction, an overview and two body paragraphs, and the reader can follow the broad movement from the northern concourse towards the southern terminal. Sequencing phrases such as “Starting from the North” and “Moving towards south” help establish location. However, the progression is not always reliable: the account shifts between north-south directions and facility changes without consistently anchoring them to departures or arrivals. The sentence beginning “A bag drop is also installed…” is especially difficult to follow because it combines several changes and contains a typo. Use one paragraph for the concourse and another for the terminal facilities, grouping each change by area and using clear references such as “in departures” and “in arrivals.” This would make the otherwise logical structure more precise.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use a reasonable range of task-related vocabulary, including “internal structure,” “layout,” “gates,” “check-in counter,” and “ATM,” and terms such as “prominent development” help communicate the main change. However, several word choices or collocations reduce precision: “walkaways” is not the intended term, “gates for entrance and exit” is awkward, and “car park” does not describe the car-hire facility shown. There are also spelling errors in “contron” and “contro,” while “floorplans” is less natural here than “floor plans.” Aim for accurate map vocabulary and concise location phrases, rather than adding descriptions such as “extended” when the plan does not support them. The meaning is generally recoverable, but more controlled word choice would make the account clearer.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You attempt a mix of simple and more complex structures, including the overview sentence with “while” and the comparison “as well.” Most sentences communicate their general meaning, but some grammatical errors remain. The opening has subject–verb disagreement: “The floorplans illustrates” should be “The floor plans illustrate.” In “the two walkaways with 8 gates,” the preposition and construction do not clearly express the relationship between the walkway and gates. The phrase “the check-in has taken the place of cafe” also needs an article and a clearer grammatical structure, such as “check-in has moved to the former café area.” There are occasional article and punctuation issues, including inconsistent spacing after commas. Continue varying sentence forms, while checking agreement, articles and sentence boundaries during revision.

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