Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-27
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 5.0)
The given two plans depics the information about the harbour in 2000 and changes in today time.
The Dock is now bigger compared to the previous one. And the public beach located in the northern side is still the same. The places of the fishing boats and Marina (private yachts) has been interchanged. The new smaller road has been built from main road to car parking.In addition the parking itself noe double in area vis-a`-vis the old one.
Besides these all the disused Castle has now turned into a hotel and just below to it there was a public beach now acquired by hotel. The new cafe`s and shopes has been built near the lifeboat area.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The response attempts to describe the main changes between the two maps, noting the swap of the marina and fishing boats, the replacement of the disused castle with a hotel, and the addition of cafés and shops. However, the response falls significantly short of the 150-word minimum, containing only 116 words. This severely limits the extent to which the task can be fully addressed. Additionally, there is a lack of a clear overall summary or overview, and some details are slightly inaccurate, such as stating that the parking doubled in area when the maps show an additional car park added rather than an expansion of the original. These limitations place the performance at Band 5.0.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The text lacks proper paragraphing, as nearly all sentences are lumped together into a single block of text following the introduction. Cohesive devices are minimal and basic, relying on simple connectors like 'And', 'Besides these all', and 'now'. While there is a basic logical progression moving from the harbour features to the southern area alterations, the overall organisation is weak due to the absence of paragraph structure and limited cohesive control, fitting the Band 5.0 descriptor.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is generally adequate for basic description, incorporating terms directly from the prompt such as 'dock', 'fishing boats', 'Marina', and 'lifeboat area'. However, there are noticeable lexical and spelling errors, such as 'depics' instead of 'depicts', 'today time', and 'shopes'. Attempts at less common vocabulary lead to awkward phrasing and collocation errors, such as 'now acquired by hotel' and 'noe double in area'. These errors occasionally cause strain for the reader, aligning with Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control is inconsistent. There are several grammatical errors throughout the response, including subject-verb agreement issues ('The given two plans depics'), missing articles ('the disused Castle has now turned into a hotel'), and awkward prepositions ('just below to it'). Punctuation and accent mark errors also appear ('cafe`s and shopes'). Despite these frequent errors, the meaning is generally retrievable, which is characteristic of Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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