Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-11

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)

The diagrams illustrate the changes at harbour at current as compared to what it was in 2000.

Overall, the main road was linked to the car park area and a road before it got attached to another car park in its east. Moreover, at present, fishing boats and marina exchanged their positions. A castle was built in the south-east which was modified with a hotel while the public beach was made private.

An analysis of the diagrams show that a main road which was on west side, linked to one car park area and a road in the east in 2000 before another car park having showers and toilets nearby it, got attached with it in the same direction. In addition, fishing boats area was replaced with marina in today,s map while a hotel in the south-east took the place of a castle with a private beach which was a public beach before. Moreover, cafes and shops were also constructed in the north of the road alongside a lifeboat, which were not present before in 2000.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify several important changes, including the exchange of the fishing-boat and marina areas, the castle’s replacement by a hotel, the change to a private beach, and the addition of cafés and shops. The overview also attempts to summarise the broad transformation. However, some details are unclear or inaccurate: the castle was not built in the south-east in 2000; it was already there and was later replaced by a hotel. The description of the car parks and road is difficult to match to the plans, and you omit other notable changes, such as the additional jetty and boats at the dock. Select the main changes more precisely and explain their locations clearly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an opening, an overview, and a further description of changes. Linking expressions such as “Overall,” “Moreover,” and “In addition” help signal relationships between points. However, the progression is not consistently clear because the second and third paragraphs repeat several changes, especially the marina/fishing-boat exchange and the castle/hotel transformation. The long sentence beginning “An analysis of the diagrams show…” combines several separate developments, making their locations and sequence hard to follow. Organise the details into clearer groups—for example, changes to the harbour facilities and changes to the southern shore—and use references that make each location unambiguous.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for describing map changes, including “exchanged their positions,” “took the place of,” “alongside,” and “constructed.” These choices communicate several key developments, and the response uses relevant terms such as “marina,” “lifeboat,” and “private beach.” Some word choices and collocations are imprecise, however: “at harbour at current” is not a natural way to introduce the comparison, and “a castle was built” misrepresents the map’s change. “Got attached to” is also vague for describing the road and car park. Choose standard map-description phrases such as “the harbour today,” “was replaced by,” and “was added beside,” and use “facilities” or specific labels rather than unclear general wording.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including clauses with “while” and “before,” and the main changes can generally be understood. Some grammatical errors remain. For example, “The diagrams illustrate the changes at harbour” needs an article, and “An analysis of the diagrams show” has a subject–verb agreement error. The sentence beginning “a main road which was on west side” also has article omissions and an awkwardly constructed relative clause. Tense and sentence control are uneven in phrases such as “before it got attached,” which makes the sequence difficult to interpret. Practise accurate articles, agreement, and past-versus-present forms, and divide sentences that contain several changes into shorter, controlled clauses.

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