Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-30

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 diagram illustrates how does the plans of porth harbour looks like in 2000 and now.

Overall, the site witnessed a lot of changes and additions, started with adding dock and transforming the ancient castel to an hotel to attract the tourists and also a cafés and shops near to the lifeboat area, without forgeting switching the places between fishing boats and the area of private yakhts.

20 years ago, in the northern side it was only a one area of dock so they added enother one near to the first one, while the public beach remined as before. Western side saw a small changes where they shifted the places of fishing boats and they put instead a marina which is a place for private yachts. also they added a small pathways that link the main road with the second car park and removed the path that was linking the road that goes into the lifeboat and link with the car park.

In the south-west, they changed the old castle, and set up a new hotel with a private beach for the visitors, also they added a cafés and stores near to the lifeboat area which is not very far from the hotel.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The candidate attempts to address the task by describing the main differences between the two maps of Porth Harbour in 2000 and today. An overall trend is provided in the second paragraph, mentioning the switch of locations and additions such as cafés and the hotel. However, the response lacks precision in reporting key spatial changes; for instance, the swapping of the marina and fishing boats is stated somewhat confusingly, and some details are imprecise. Furthermore, the introduction contains flawed grammar and phrasing ('illustrates how does the plans...'). While all parts of the prompt are touched upon, the lack of a fully coherent and well-supported overview places this response at Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response is divided into four paragraphs, including an introduction and an overall summary. However, the logical progression is hindered by awkward transitions and repetitive phrasing (such as 'also they added' repeated multiple times). Cohesive devices are mechanically used and referencing is sometimes unclear, such as 'they added enother one near to the first one' without clearly establishing which feature is being discussed immediately prior. Paragraphing is attempted, but internal cohesion within sentences and paragraphs often falters. This corresponds to a Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive ('added', 'changed', 'place'). There are notable lexical and spelling errors, such as 'castel' instead of castle, 'enother' instead of another, 'remined' instead of remained, and 'yakhts' instead of yachts. Although the student attempts some less common vocabulary ('transforming', 'visitors'), the persistent spelling mistakes and imprecise word choices ('ancient castel') limit the lexical score to Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response contains a mixture of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical accuracy is quite low throughout. There are fundamental structural errors, such as 'how does the plans of porth harbour looks like', incorrect tense usage ('it was only a one area'), and run-on sentences with improper comma splices or conjunctions ('without forgeting switching'). Punctuation is also weak. Because errors are frequent and occasionally cause strain for the reader, this merits a Band 5.0.

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