Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-04

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 6.0)

The blueprints illustrates the redevelopment of porth harbour from year 2000 to today. Overall, significant changes are being introduced to make harbour practical. The main noticeable part is the renovation of a castle into a luxury hotel and the the southern public beach is now designated to hotel guests only. Another important feature is the connection of road to the hotel to provide accessibility. Moreover, at the southern side, cafes and shops are developed alongside road, nearby lifeboat area. At northwest side, the number of showers and toilets are being doubled and the places of marina (private yachts) and fishing boats are being interchanged with a slight increase in the area of fishing boats. Beside it, a new docks is built to increase usability. Additionally, the public beach area present at northern side of harbour remains same. Similarly, the car park area at the southern west side remains as it was.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by providing a clear overview and highlighting the main changes between the year 2000 and today. You correctly identified key developments, such as the conversion of the disused castle into a hotel, the creation of a private beach, the swapping of the marina and fishing boat locations, and the addition of new amenities like cafés, shops, and an extra dock. An overview is present at the beginning of the second sentence, summarizing the main intent of the changes. While some minor details could be further extended, the key features are well-reported and supported by the visual data, establishing a clear comparison throughout the text.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement and attempts to sequence information logically, starting with a general overview and moving systematically through the key modifications across the harbour. However, the progression is somewhat hindered by formatting choices, as the text is presented as a single dense paragraph rather than structured into separate paragraphs for the introduction, overview, and body details. Furthermore, cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or basic, with sentences linked by repetitive transitional adverbs like 'moreover', 'beside it', and 'additionally'. To reach a higher level, the writing should be divided into distinct paragraphs and employ a more sophisticated and varied range of cohesive referencing to guide the reader seamlessly through the comparisons.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

An adequate range of vocabulary is deployed to describe the map changes, including terms such as 'redevelopment', 'designated', 'accessibility', and 'interchanged'. You also made successful attempts to use less common vocabulary like 'practical', 'usability', and 'renovation'. Nevertheless, there are occasional lexical inaccuracies and awkward word choices, such as writing 'blueprints' instead of 'maps' or 'plans', and using 'southern west' instead of 'south-west'. Spelling is generally accurate, but some collocations are slightly unnatural. A broader control of precise locational and architectural terminology would elevate your lexical range to a higher tier.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, attempting various clauses to describe the transformations. However, there are several grammatical errors and issues with control. For instance, there is a subject-verb agreement error in 'The blueprints illustrates', an unnecessary article in 'the the southern public beach', and a tense confusion in 'are being introduced' and 'are being doubled' where past or present simple tenses would be more appropriate for describing changes on a map. Punctuation is mostly functional, but the persistence of these grammatical slips and occasional awkward phrasings mean that communication is sometimes slightly disrupted. Greater accuracy in verb tenses and articles is required for higher bands.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.