Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-06

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 illustrate information about how a harbour looked in 2000 and as of today.

Overall, the area underwent considerable development, becoming more organised over the period. New hotel along with the addition docks have been built in the post development of the place.

In the left side, the marina and the fishing boats have been interchanged along with the introduction of the showers and toilets in west side of the marina as of today. The way to the car park have changed from road to main road making it easy and convinet for accessibility. There are two docks as of today on the notherside of the porth harbour.

The castle which was disused in 2000 have been transformed to the hotel, with connection to road. New cafes and shops have been introduced just the left of the Lifeboat making it convinent for the visitors to buy food and goods. The public beach of the southern side have been changed to the private beach and is currently used by the hotel.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by identifying the main features and making relevant comparisons between the two maps. An overview is attempted, noting that the area underwent considerable development. However, some key features are under-developed or inaccurately described. For example, the mention of 'addition docks' being built is not entirely precise, as the map shows an extra jetty added to the existing northern dock. Furthermore, certain transformations, such as the switching of the marina and fishing boats, are stated, but overall the selection of features could be extended and supported more thoroughly to reach a higher level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement, and information is generally grouped by spatial or thematic progression, moving from general changes to specific locations like the marina, the castle, and the beach. Paragraphing is used to separate different areas of the harbour. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. Words like 'In the left side' and 'as of today' are repetitive, and referencing between sentences is not always clear, which occasionally disrupts the flow of the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to describe the changes with some success. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'considerable development', 'interchanged', and 'transformed', but these are accompanied by some word-choice and spelling errors, such as 'nottherside', 'convinet', and 'addition docks'. While these errors do not seriously impede communication, they reflect a limited range and occasional inaccuracy that prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'The maps illustrate information about how a harbour looked...' and 'The castle which was disused in 2000 have been transformed...'. However, there are several errors in grammar and punctuation, including subject-verb agreement issues ('The castle... have been', 'The way... have changed'), missing articles ('New hotel', 'the west side'), and incorrect prepositions ('in west side'). Although these errors rarely impede communication, their frequency across complex structures demonstrates limited control over grammatical accuracy.

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

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