Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-11

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The plans below show a harbour in 2000 and how it looks today.

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

 

 

Student answer (Band 4.5)

The plans illustrates the changes that have taken place in porth harbour between the year 2000 and the present day.Overall, over the years porth harbour have significant chages in business center and accomodation areas. Notably therre is a slight changes in development in marine(private yachts ) and fishing boats in addition to car park

To begin with their is a positive development noted in the porth harbour in the current day .To the south east area there is intoduction of hotel which replaced castle (disued ) in 2000. To add there is devel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.5

The response identifies the broad time comparison and mentions several relevant changes, including the hotel replacing the disused castle and changes involving the marina and fishing boats. However, the summary is very incomplete: it ends mid-sentence at “To add there is devel” and does not report the added cafés and shops, the extra facilities, or the changes to the dock and beaches. The overview is also vague (“significant chages in business center and accomodation areas”) and does not clearly summarise the main transformations. The required minimum of 150 words is not met, which contributes to the limited coverage. To improve, complete the report and select several key changes, describing their locations accurately and comparing the two plans.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

There is an attempt to organise the response with an introduction, an overview beginning “Overall,” and a detail paragraph introduced by “To begin with.” These signals show some awareness of report structure. However, the response is too short and stops abruptly, so there is no complete progression through the map features or concluding detail. Connections between ideas are also unclear: “Notably” introduces a list-like statement, while “To add” does not lead to a completed point. Develop separate paragraphs for the overview and the main groups of changes, and use clear links such as “By contrast” or “In addition” to show how features changed between 2000 and today.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The response uses some task-relevant vocabulary, including “replaced,” “hotel,” “castle,” “marina,” and “fishing boats,” and attempts phrases such as “business center” and “accomodation areas.” However, the range is limited, and several spelling errors make the writing less clear, including “chages,” “therre,” “intoduction,” and “disued.” Some expressions are imprecise for describing a harbour plan: “positive development” is evaluative rather than a neutral description, and “development in marine” does not clearly identify the marina. Use precise map vocabulary such as “facility,” “relocated,” “converted,” and “harbour entrance,” and check spelling carefully. This would make the limited information more exact and easier to understand.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts a few longer structures, including “The plans illustrates the changes that have taken place…” and “which replaced castle,” but control is inconsistent. Subject–verb agreement is incorrect in “plans illustrates” and “porth harbour have,” while articles are missing in “replaced castle” and “introduction of hotel.” The opening also runs directly into “Overall” without appropriate sentence spacing or punctuation, and the final sentence is incomplete. Most of the writing relies on simple statements or fragments, so there is little evidence of a controlled range of sentence forms. Build complete sentences around one clear change at a time, check singular and plural agreement, and use articles consistently—for example, “the hotel replaced the castle.”

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