Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The diagram below shows the process for recycling plastic bottles.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

How plastic bottles are recycled

Student answer (Band 5.5)

The diagram illustate the prucedure of recycling plastic bottles.

Overall,it can clearly seen that the procces of recycling of plastic bottles consest of several stages from collecting to usefull products it consest on 9 stages.

It the begining, people throw the plastic bottles to a dustbin,after that the waste collecting truck collect the plastic bottles from the dustbin and they send that to recycling center for sorting they sort that bottles on a machine after sorting, they send that to comprasser machine in the comprassesr machine make a big blocks.

In the fifth stage they send this to crashor for crashing and, the after crashing they wash that crushing pieces.Ratherthan in the 6 stage after washing they procces that pieces in throu of a machine and the machine make pellsts.After pellets in the 7 stage they give heat to that pellets to take form of raw material.In the 8 stage they make take the place of raw material and the final stage 9 they make other usefull material such as plastic bages,pencil and more plastic bottles the overall process is consest on 9 stages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You cover the main stages in the correct general order, from putting bottles in a bin and collection through sorting, compression, crushing, washing, pellet production and heating. The overview also identifies a nine-stage process, and the examples of end products show awareness of how the cycle concludes. This is relevant coverage, but some stages are less fully or clearly reported: for example, the sorting stage’s separation into accepted and rejected bottles is omitted, and the raw material stage is described vaguely as “they make take the place of raw material.” The diagram also shows the finished products feeding back to the start, a key feature of the cycle that could be made clearer. More precise descriptions of these details would strengthen the summary.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, an overview, and descriptions of the early and later stages. Sequencing expressions such as “at the beginning,” “after that,” and “in the fifth stage” help the reader follow the process. However, progression is weakened by very long sentences that combine several stages without clear boundaries, particularly the paragraph beginning “It the beginning.” Some links are also awkward or unclear, such as “Ratherthan in the 6 stage,” and the overview repeats the point that there are nine stages. Use separate sentences for each group of stages, and connect them with a smaller, more varied set of accurate transitions. Clearer paragraphing would make the sequence easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant process vocabulary, including “sorting,” “compressing,” “crushing,” “washing,” “pellets,” and “raw material,” so the reader can identify many of the stages. You also attempt to describe the final products. However, spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable and sometimes make the meaning difficult to recover: “illustate,” “prucedure,” “comprasser,” “crashor,” and “pellsts” are examples. Some phrases are also imprecise, such as “make take the place of raw material” and “other usefull material.” Aim to learn the correct forms of key process terms and use natural collocations, for example, “compress the bottles into blocks” and “produce a range of goods.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and longer sentences to explain the sequence, and the overall meaning is often recoverable. However, the longer structures are frequently faulty, with missing verbs, unclear clause connections, and problems with articles and agreement. For instance, “Overall,it can clearly seen” needs a passive verb form, while “the waste collecting truck collect” has a subject–verb agreement problem. The sentence beginning “In the fifth stage” joins several actions without reliable punctuation, making the relationships between them unclear. There are also inconsistent sentence boundaries and spacing after punctuation. Practise writing short, accurate sentences first, then combine them using clear clauses such as “After the bottles are crushed, the pieces are washed.”

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