Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-19
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)
There is a harbour plan shows which illustrates how it was designed in 2000 although how it appears now.
In 2000 plan southern side has a road that leads to car parking of north side, furthermore it connects to the main road. The road goes straight towards life boat, and public beach and is was planned to build a castle building in the the south-east corner. Moreover in the west side of lifeboat area a fishing and boats occurs. On the left side of the fishing boats Marine( private yachts) and docks. and next to dock a public beach is planned. Furtherm
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 4.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.5 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0
The response is severely under-length, containing only 102 words compared to the required 150 words. Because it stops abruptly mid-sentence at 'Furtherm', it fails to fully cover all parts of the task. While the student attempts to describe elements of the 2000 plan, the overview is missing, and the description of changes is incomplete. Important transformations—such as the conversion of the disused castle into a hotel, the relocation of the marina and fishing boats, and the addition of cafés and shops—are either completely omitted or described with significant confusion and inaccuracies regarding locations and features.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0
The text lacks clear overall progression and logical organisation. The writing consists of a few fragmented sentences that fail to form a cohesive description of the maps. Transitional devices are awkwardly used or mechanically forced, such as 'furthermore' and 'moreover'. Furthermore, the response lacks proper paragraphing, and the text ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence, preventing any coherent structural flow or clear referencing between past and present features.
Lexical Resource — Band 4.5
The lexical range is extremely limited and repetitive, relying on basic vocabulary such as 'road', 'south', 'north', and 'beach'. There are frequent word choice and collocation errors, such as 'a fishing and boats occurs' and 'Marine( private yachts) and docks'. Spelling and morphological issues are also present, demonstrating a lack of precision necessary to discuss diagrammatic data effectively.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5
Grammatical control is weak, with significant structural errors that impede communication. The opening sentence contains major syntactic confusion: 'There is a harbour plan shows which illustrates how it was designed in 2000 although how it appears now.' Other sentences feature missing verbs, incorrect prepositions, and faulty relative clauses, such as 'and is was planned to build a castle building in the the south-east corner.' The range of structures is very narrow, and the abundance of basic errors pulls the score down.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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