Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)
These two maps illustrate some changes in overlays of porth harbour from 2000 to today.
Overall, porth harbour was completely a port area in 2000. Today, it becomes a tourist area with some port facilities. The map layout is still the same as before but main changes occured in east-southern part of the map.
In 2000, there was a marina for pirvate yachts and a fishing boats part in western part. they just swapped their places today. On the other hand the car park beside the fishing boats in 2000 was connected with the side road which connected to the lifeboat and beach. Today, after the swapping car park beside the marina is conneced with main road.
Moreover, there was a public beach, castle and a lifeboat in the east-southern part of the map in 2000. Now there are cafes and shops beside the lifeboat . The castle become a hotel and the hotel acquire the public beach and make that private. Furthermore, there was no road connected to the castle but today when the castle replaced by hotel a new road added and conected to the hotel.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5
The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by identifying the main features and making clear comparisons between the harbour in 2000 and today. An overview is provided, noting the shift from a pure port area to a mixed tourist and port location. Key changes such as the swapping of the marina and fishing boats, the addition of cafes, shops, and a hotel replacing the disused castle are highlighted. However, some areas remain slightly under-developed, and certain spatial descriptions are a bit imprecise, such as referring to the north-east/south-east areas loosely, which prevents the response from achieving a higher score.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5
The response presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from an introduction to an overview and subsequent body paragraphs detailing specific spatial transformations. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate different geographical areas of the harbour. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, seen in transitions like 'On the other hand' used somewhat inappropriately for spatial comparison, and occasional referencing issues where pronoun links like 'they' or 'that' are not entirely clear. These features reflect a solid mid-level performance in organizing information.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully attempting less common items related to map descriptions, such as 'swapped', 'relocated', and 'harbour'. However, there are noticeable lexical and spelling inaccuracies that prevent a higher score, such as 'east-southern' instead of south-eastern, 'pirvate' for private, and awkward word choices like 'fishing boats part'. Spelling slips and imprecise word formations mean vocabulary control remains limited to a mid-level band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The text displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, with attempts at relative clauses and prepositional phrases, such as 'the car park beside the fishing boats in 2000 was connected with the side road'. There are several grammatical errors in punctuation, missing articles, and prepositions, including 'main changes occured', 'conneced with main road', and 'the castle become a hotel'. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they occur regularly enough alongside a somewhat limited range of complex structures to place the grammar firmly in this band.
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