Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · 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 6.5)

The plans illustrate a harbour in 2000 and its current layout.

Overall, current layout has more facilities as compared to older one like new hotel, increased number of showers and toilets and more docks. Some facilities of harbour have been relocated and some have changed its status.

With respect to increased facilities, a new showers and toilets area has been built in the south of older one. Now along with each car parking, there is a such area. The marina and fishing boats have exchaged their positions. A new dock has been constructed along with the old one. There is newly built cafes and shops are near the life boats. A castle that was not in any use has been converted to a hotel. And a nearby public beach now has been redesignated as private beach for the hotel.

The other public beach is unchanged. The passenger ferries location is the same. There is no change with respect to car parkings and roads.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.5

The response covers all key aspects of the task, successfully identifying the primary changes between the 2000 map and the current layout. You provide a clear overview in the second paragraph mentioning that facilities have expanded, including the new hotel, additional restrooms, and new docks, while also noting relocations and status changes. Specific details are properly highlighted, such as the exchange of positions between the marina and fishing boats, the addition of new cafés and shops near the lifeboats, and the conversion of the disused castle into a hotel alongside its adjacent beach becoming private. The ideas are relevant and generally well-supported, although some comparisons could be extended slightly further to reach the highest standard. Overall, the visual data is interpreted accurately without major omissions or factual errors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression from an introductory summary to detailed body paragraphs describing spatial changes, and concluding observations. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the overview, the newly added facilities, and the unchanged features. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward, such as the transition 'With respect to increased facilities,' and referencing is occasionally less clear than it could be. Cohesive devices are employed to link the ideas together, but greater variety and smoother linking phrases would elevate the organizational quality further. The structure ensures the reader can easily follow the comparison between the two time periods.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

An adequate vocabulary range is employed to describe the map changes, successfully fulfilling the requirements of the task. You make effective attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'relocated', 'redesignated', and 'status'. However, there are some noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'older one' instead of 'the previous layout', 'such area' instead of 'a similar facility', and 'exchaged' which contains a spelling error. Collocations are occasionally unnatural, though these minor inaccuracies do not impede communication. Expanding your repertoire of precise geographical and spatial terminology will help improve your lexical flexibility for future writing tasks.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating basic control over sentence structures. You successfully incorporate relative clauses and present/past tense contrasts (e.g., 'A castle that was not in any use has been converted...'). However, there are frequent grammatical inaccuracies, particularly with articles ('the older one', 'the passenger ferries location'), prepositions ('in the south of older one'), and pluralization ('car parkings'). Complex sentence structures occasionally contain structural flaws, such as 'There is newly built cafes and shops are near the life boats', where verb agreement and auxiliary usage are incorrect. These errors require attention to ensure smoother reading and higher grammatical precision.

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