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 map illustrates the changes that taken place in Porth Harbour from 2000 to the present day.

Overall, Porth Harbour significant changes, being several facilities added including cafes, shops and Hottel. The fishing boats and marine were also relocated while the public beach converted into the hotel beach and also southwest side changes it adds the one more showers and tiolets sector.

In 2000, fishing boats were in the separate area on the westren side. Today its area becomes Marina(private yachts) while the other fishing boats area shifted to the northren side. Although there are now showers, toilets and car park serve this area.

Now a days, Porth Harbour a new showers and toilets and car park have been added as well as the cafes and shops are constructed beside by the road.The old(disused) castle replaced by the new hotel.The public beach has become a private beach for the hotel. The main road is still present, but the road near the lifeboat has been expended and thr raod provides the new facilities.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

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, such as the relocation of the fishing boats and the marina. However, some parts of the response are under-developed or lack clarity, such as the confusing description of the beachfront changes and the incomplete overview sentence missing a verb ('Porth Harbour significant changes'). While the key spatial shifts are captured, the overall selection of features lacks sufficient extension to reach a higher level, placing it solidly in the mid-range for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement, dividing the description into an introduction, overview, and body paragraphs that attempt to group spatial changes logically. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in phrases like 'Today its area becomes Marina' and the abrupt transitions between sentences in the final paragraph. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion lacks smooth progression, resulting in an uneven flow that prevents the text from achieving a clearer logical organisation.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate to complete the task, successfully employing terms like 'relocated', 'constructed', and 'facilities'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'taken' instead of 'taken place', 'Hottel' for hotel, 'tiolets' for toilets, 'westren' for western, and 'expended' for expanded. Furthermore, attempts at less common vocabulary lead to awkward collocations and inaccuracies, which restrict the lexical range and impact the overall precision of the report.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses with 'although' and relative structures. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and sentence construction, including missing verb forms ('Porth Harbour significant changes', 'Porth Harbour a new showers and toilets... have been added'), incorrect prepositions ('beside by the road'), and awkward phrasing ('the public beach converted into the hotel beach'). These errors require some effort from the reader to parse, though they do not completely impede communication.

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

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