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 diagrams depicts the porth harbour transformation from 2000 to present day.
Overall, it is explicitly evident from the sketches that harbour undergone significant changes, with addition of dock arae, cafe's and shops and other new facilities.
In 2000, porth harbour comprised of public beach located at north east with public ferries along with a ship dock area.While showers, toilets and car park situated along the main road running from north to south.Sepcial yachts dock area is located at north west adjacent to car park for private owners.Whereas a road was extended from main road provide access to car park, fishing boats, life boats area in west-south region.A castle is situated with public beach in south east area.
By the present day, additional shower and toilet area constructed along the main road, while swaped the location of private yachts and fishing boats for btter access to facilities.Furthermore, new cafe's and shops built along the road extended from primary road.Additionally, castle was supplanted with hotel.Another dock area added along the passenger ferries.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The candidate attempts to cover the main features of the Porth harbour transformation from 2000 to the present day, providing a general overview and noting several specific alterations such as the relocation of the private yachts and fishing boats, the addition of cafés and shops, and the replacement of the disused castle with a hotel. However, there are some inaccuracies and omissions in reporting the visual data; for instance, the text mentions an 'addition of dock arae' and refers to public ferries alongside a ship dock area inaccurately based on the map. The overview is somewhat basic. Consequently, this performance aligns well with Band 6.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The response exhibits a clear overall arrangement with an introductory summary followed by body paragraphs detailing the past and present layouts. Cohesive devices are used to signal chronological shifts ('In 2000', 'By the present day'), but referencing is sometimes faulty and mechanical. Paragraphing is attempted, though paragraph breaks could be better structured to separate overall trends from specific geographical descriptions. Transitional phrases are occasionally awkward, such as 'Whereas a road was extended', resulting in a somewhat disjointed flow between sentences. These issues place the response firmly in the Band 6 descriptor range.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'transformation', 'relocated', 'supplanted', and 'facilities'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'porth' (uncapitalized), 'arae' (area), 'cafe's' (cafés), 'Sepcial' (Special), 'swaped' (swapped), and 'btter' (better). Attempts at less common vocabulary sometimes lead to unnatural collocations or inaccurate forms. The lexical range is minimally adequate to convey the message, but frequent slips prevent it from reaching Band 7.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'Overall, it is explicitly evident from the sketches that harbour undergone significant changes...' However, there are frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ('that harbour undergone', 'along passenger ferries'), tense inconsistencies ('harbour undergone' instead of 'the harbour has undergone'), and preposition misuse. Punctuation errors are also present, such as apostrophe misuse in 'cafe's'. While the errors do not completely impede communication, they occur with enough frequency to restrict the score to Band 5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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