Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-17
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 maps illustrates the changing that took place in porth harbour between 2000 and today harbour
Overall the area underwent considerable development. several nwe facilities were constructed, while old features was demolished into new features. The area consiquently became more residential.
In 2000, the showers and toilets, car park, marina (private yachts) were situated in the Northernwest, while the sceond car pak with the subroad that is linked and fishing boats were situated in the southernwest. On the right side of porth harbour there were Dockthat were replaced by two passenger farries in today, and public beach were situated in the uper or middel northern east. The life boat were situated in the middel of the north and public beach or castel were situated in the southern east.
Another significant was the transformation of cafe and shop on the front of main road that is linked to the hotel that transform by castel. Furthermore the raod that comes from main road is extended towards the hotel that is situated in the corner of the east,
Despites the life boat and public beach remained in the same location.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 4.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.0 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The student attempts to address the task by describing the main changes between the two maps of Porth Harbour in 2000 and today. An overview is attempted, noting that the area underwent considerable development, and several key changes such as the relocation of the marina and fishing boats are mentioned. However, the response contains numerous inaccuracies in reading the map features. For instance, the student states that the dock was replaced by passenger ferries, whereas passenger ferries and the dock both existed in 2000, and the dock features an expanded setup today. Furthermore, the castle was replaced by a hotel rather than transforming into one directly, and descriptions of locations are frequently imprecise or confused (e.g., 'Northernwest', 'subroad'). Because of these descriptive errors and underdeveloped reporting of the visual data, the response falls into Band 5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The response is divided into brief paragraphs, but the overall organization lacks a smooth logical progression. Cohesive devices are used awkwardly or incorrectly, such as 'Another significant was the transformation...' and 'Despites the life boat...', which disrupts the flow of reading. Referencing is frequently unclear, making it difficult to follow spatial relationships between features on the maps. Paragraphing is attempted, but sentences within paragraphs feel disjointed rather than logically linked. This level of cohesion and structural control aligns with Band 5 descriptors.
Lexical Resource — Band 4.0
The vocabulary used is basic and heavily reliant on direct lifting or imprecise paraphrasing from the prompt (e.g., 'harbour', 'marina', 'private yachts', 'fishing boats', 'life boat'). There are several spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'nwe' instead of new, 'consiquently', 'Northernwest', 'sceond', 'pak', 'Dockthat', 'farries', 'uper', 'middel', 'castel', 'raod', and 'Despites'. These frequent lexical errors and limited control over less common vocabulary restrict the score to Band 4.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control is weak, resulting in frequent grammatical errors. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('The maps illustrates'), incorrect verb forms ('how it looks today harbour', 'features was demolished'), missing articles or incorrect prepositions ('on the front of main road', 'in the corner of the east'), and faulty relative clauses ('that is linked and fishing boats'). These frequent errors frequently strain the reader and obscure meaning, placing the response firmly in Band 4.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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