Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-30

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 pictures illustrate current airport and how it will look like after rennovation.

At quick glance at new plan picture, lots of facilities added and developments are done icluding adding more gates to increase airport capacity.

One of the major changes are extension of gates from 8 gates to 18 gates, to make it happen block shape where gates are located, also will change its shape from rectangular to y shaped building. Now passengers use walkaway to board on their plane, in future developments they will replace walkaways with sky trains, to make it more comfortable for passengers. Moreover, they are planning to install shopping area on departure part of the building, making it possible for passengers to do shopping after security and passport control.

There will be minor changes on departure entrance, such as current check-in area will be moved to north eastern part of the building which now, occupied with cafe. Cafe will be moved to south left corner of the block, next to it bag drop area is epected to built. There will be developments on the arrival side as well, including installation of cafe, ATM and car hire on right side of the building.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response identifies the main transformation clearly: the concourse changes from a rectangular layout to a Y-shape, and capacity rises from 8 to 18 gates. It also reports several relevant changes to passenger facilities, including the sky train, shops, bag drop, café, ATM and car hire. This gives the reader a sound account of the plans. Some details, however, are imprecise: the shops are described as being in the “departure part” rather than along the angled wall between departures and the concourse, and the current café is not clearly located before security and passport control. The overview is also brief and could more explicitly summarise the major expansion alongside the changes to both terminal areas. More precise spatial reporting would strengthen an otherwise well-focused response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The information follows a generally logical sequence: the opening introduces the comparison, the next section covers the concourse and passenger movement, and the final section describes changes in departures and arrivals. Linking phrases such as “Moreover,” “In future developments,” and “There will be” help connect the points, and the reader can follow the overall progression. However, the response is presented as one continuous block, and several ideas are crowded into long sentences, particularly the description of the check-in, café and bag-drop changes. Some references, such as “they” and “it,” are not fully explicit. Clearer paragraphing and more controlled sentence boundaries would make the organisation more effective and bring the cohesion closer to consistently flexible use.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The response uses a relevant range of vocabulary for describing redevelopment, including “extension,” “capacity,” “rectangular,” “Y shaped,” “install,” and “installation.” These choices allow the writer to report both structural and service changes, and the meaning is generally clear. There are, however, several spelling and word-choice problems, such as “rennovation,” “walkaway,” and “epected,” as well as less natural combinations like “at quick glance” and “developments are done.” “Block shape” is also an imprecise description of the original concourse. These errors do not prevent understanding, but they limit the accuracy and naturalness of the vocabulary. Aim for precise map language and check spelling and collocations carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response attempts a mixture of simple and more complex structures, including clauses with “which” and “such as,” and the sequence of planned changes is mostly understandable. However, grammatical control is uneven. For example, “One of the major changes are” has a subject–verb agreement error, while “current airport” and “how it will look like” show problems with articles and sentence construction. The sentence beginning “There will be minor changes” also contains an unclear relative clause in “which now, occupied with cafe.” Several sentences omit necessary articles or use awkward tense and clause patterns. Work on building accurate complete sentences first, then add subordinate clauses; this will help retain the range attempted while reducing errors.

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