Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-20
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 showed the changes in the harbour in 2000 and how it looks today.
Overall, harbour contain several alterations from before. The castle is converted into a hotel and the public beach near the castle is changed into a private beach. The placement of fishing boats and private yachts were swapped. Cafes and shops are built and incearse numbers of showers and toilets are available now.
The quantity of docks increased from on to two near the public beach and more passenger ferries are available now. The castle located in the south of no use is replaced into a hotel and the nearby public beach is transformed into a private beach. Furthermore, the lifeboat that is linked with the hotel now has cafes and shops nearby. The area for fishing boats and private yachts are now interchanged together. More showers and toilets are built above the car parking near the private yachts place now. However, the location of the public beach is same as before.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response successfully identifies the main changes depicted in the maps, such as the conversion of the castle into a hotel, the swapping of the fishing boats and private yachts, and the addition of cafés and shops. An overview is present in the second paragraph, capturing the general transformation of the harbour. However, some details are slightly inaccurate or repetitive across the body paragraphs, and the description lacks a more structured comparative approach. Nevertheless, all key developments are covered adequately, fulfilling the requirements for Task Achievement at this level.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The response is organized into short paragraphs, including an introduction, an overview, and a main body paragraph. Progression is somewhat repetitive, as similar points are restated between the overview and the body paragraph (for instance, the hotel and private beach are mentioned in both). Cohesive devices are used simply, such as 'Furthermore' and 'However', but referencing and logical flow can be mechanical. Paragraphing is attempted, though the division of ideas could be more clearly structured to avoid redundancy.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with appropriate references to features like 'private yachts', 'passenger ferries', 'fishing boats', and 'hotel'. However, there are instances of lexical inaccuracy and awkward collocation, such as 'harbour contain several alterations', 'incearse numbers', 'quantity of docks increased from on to two', and 'above the car parking'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success, and spelling errors like 'incearse' detract from precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The castle located in the south of no use is replaced into a hotel...'. Grammatical errors are noticeable, including subject-verb agreement issues ('harbour contain'), preposition errors ('replaced into' instead of 'replaced by'), and awkward relative clauses. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to restrict the score to this band level.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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