Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-05

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 compare the layout of a porth harbour in 2000 with its present-day arrangements.

At first glance, the main road can be seen towards west. There were two car parks linked with the main road. The marina and boats for fishing was also there which was parallel to each other. The road was going along west to east. The passenger ferries were in the centre part of the river. There were two public beaches on north-eastern side and other one was in southern part. In north-eastern side, castle can be seen.

Turning to the changes that took place, both car parks remained unchanged and shower and toilet has been consist in between the parking areas. Then the marina and fishing boats have been interchanged with each other. Moreover, the castle has been replaced with hotel on the south-east side. The cafe and shops have been taken towards southern part. However, the passenger ferries remained at the same place as they were before.

Overall, porth harbour underwent several significant changes, including the replacement of castle with a hotel and the addition of cafes and shops.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt only partially, which keeps it at this level. While you successfully mention several key transformations, such as the interchange of the marina and fishing boats and the replacement of the disused castle with a hotel, some details are inaccurate or missing. For instance, your description of the passenger ferries and beaches contains inaccuracies regarding their locations or exact changes compared to the visual data. Furthermore, the overview is somewhat limited, and your ideas lack full development and precise reporting of the spatial relationships shown in the maps. To achieve a higher band, you need to ensure all major features are reported accurately with clearer comparisons between the two years.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your response demonstrates a clear overall arrangement with a logical paragraph structure, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs detailing specific changes, and finishing with an overview. You make use of standard transitional markers like "At first glance", "Turning to the changes that took place", and "Overall" to guide the reader through the text. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty, such as the abrupt transition in referencing beaches and the repetitive use of connective structures. While you easily meet the requirements for lower bands through this clear organizational framework, advancing to higher bands requires more flexible and subtle cohesive devices, as well as smoother referencing between sentences to establish a completely seamless progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to convey basic comparisons such as "interchanged", "replaced", and "remained unchanged". However, the range is limited and contains noticeable errors in word choice and form, such as writing "porth harbour" with a lowercase letter, stating "shower and toilet has been consist" instead of consistent or remaining in place, and referring to the "cafe and shops" being "taken" instead of added. There are also occasional phrasing awkwardness and collocation slips. To improve your lexical score, you should incorporate a wider variety of less common vocabulary and precise terminology related to maps and urban planning, while paying closer attention to accurate word forms and spelling.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like relative clauses and introductory phrases. However, your grammatical range remains limited, and frequent errors persist, particularly with verb tense consistency, subject-verb agreement, and articles. Examples include "the main road can be seen towards west" (missing article), "There were two car parks linked with the main road. The marina and boats for fishing was also there" (agreement error), and "shower and toilet has been consist" (incorrect tense and verb form). These errors can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. To reach a higher band, you must increase your control over complex sentence patterns and reduce the frequency of basic grammatical slips.

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

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