Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-16
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 5.5)
The maps show, How the harbour looks today and before in 2000.
Overall, the Porth Harbour area is not expanded but it medernized by adding some enimties and features. Today harbour is well organize into four sections such fishing boat, Marina private yachts, economic hub and travel services.
The southwest car paking entrance shifted from south raod to main west raod. Moreover there is an extra shower and toilets constructed beside of southwest parking in noth direction. Locations of fishing boats and Marina exchanged with each others. Docking service for boats is expaned, now two boats can be docked at once. Cafe and shops are constructed in front of south road. Castle is redisgned into hotel for visitors, which is connected by south road by junction in front of cafe and shops. The west public beach is redesigned into private beach for hotel members. The north public beach and life boat service remained same as before.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student attempts to address the task by highlighting the main changes between 2000 and the present day at Porth Harbour. An overview is attempted, noting modernization and the addition of facilities, which satisfies basic requirements. Key transformations are identified, such as the swapping of the marina and fishing boats, the addition of cafés and shops, and the conversion of the disused castle into a hotel with a private beach. However, some details are imprecise or slightly misreported—for example, describing the harbour area as not expanded when it has clearly been modified significantly, and several spelling and phrasing issues slightly obscure the precise reporting of data. Despite these shortcomings, the core spatial changes are adequately covered, placing this response at Band 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is structured into an introduction, an overview paragraph, and a body paragraph detailing the specific changes. Cohesive devices are attempted (e.g., 'Moreover', 'Today'), but paragraphing is rather weak as the main body of changes is lumped into a single, dense block of text rather than being logically grouped (such as separating water features from land-based facilities). Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'The southwest car paking entrance shifted from south raod to main west raod', which makes following the spatial progression a bit difficult. Overall progression is somewhat disjointed due to the lack of clear paragraph divisions, resulting in a Band 5.5 performance.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range to describe the map changes, using terms such as 'modernized', 'relocated', 'constructed', and 'redisgned'. However, there are numerous spelling errors ('medernized', 'enimties', 'organize', 'paking', 'raod', 'expaned', 'redisgned', 'life boat') and awkward word choices ('economic hub', 'travel services'). Less common lexical items are attempted but often marred by inaccurate spelling or formation, meaning the range is somewhat limited and repetitive. These lexical errors occasionally strain the reader, fitting the Band 5.0 profile.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as punctuation and comma misplacement ('The maps show, How the harbour looks today and before in 2000'), subject-verb agreement issues ('Today harbour is well organize'), and missing prepositions ('connected by south road by junction'). Passive voice attempts are sometimes awkward ('is expaned', 'are constructed'). Because grammatical errors are frequent and occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, the response aligns best with Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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