Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-16

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 plans illustrate comparison of Porth Harbour with current plan and how it held in 2000.

Overall, the area of Porth harbour has became the more extended with including several new facility such as hotel, cafe & shop.

According to 2000's map, a former Porth Harbour was main road on West side, beside it held showers & toilets and just after a carparking was located . Public beach was located corner of the North-East side while another one was in the South-East corner and beside of the disused castle. middle of the area a dock was located for two ferries. The road passed through the land that connected to lifeboat, beside of the road it had situated car parking and fishing boats. marina located in between dock and car parking of West side.

In the present time, such new amenities constructed in a Porth harbour and it looks more modern and bigger than before. castle converted in to hotel and public beach occupied by hotel and it convert in to private beach. Some few shops and cafes now developed beside the lifeboat while fishing boats and marina interchanged their place. One final changed a new dock added beside the old one for the ferries.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify the main overall changes: the castle becomes a hotel, the southern beach becomes private, cafés and shops are added, and the marina and fishing-boat areas switch places. These are relevant and show that you understand the broad transformation. However, some details are inaccurate or unclear: the 2000 map shows passenger ferries near the northern entrance, not two ferries in a dock in the middle, and the southern public beach is not in the south-east corner beside the castle. The overview that the harbour is “more extended” and “bigger” is also not clearly supported by the plans. To strengthen the report, describe the main changes more precisely, including the added facilities and the dock’s extra jetty, and distinguish the two beaches and their locations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, a paragraph about 2000, and a final paragraph about today. This gives the reader a basic chronological comparison, and phrases such as “In the present time” help signal the shift between maps. However, the 2000 paragraph groups several locations into long, loosely connected sentences, making their relationships difficult to follow. For example, the sequence beginning “The road passed through the land” combines the road, lifeboat, car park, fishing boats and marina without clear spatial links. Some transitions, such as “One final changed,” are also awkward. Organise details into clearer groups—north and south, or facilities and land use—and use precise linking phrases to show where each feature is relative to another.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant map vocabulary, including “located,” “converted,” “interchanged,” and “beside,” and you attempt to describe change rather than simply list labels. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, which limits precision: “the area … has became the more extended,” “new amenities constructed in a Porth harbour,” and “a new dock added beside the old one” do not express the changes naturally. “Carparking” and “cafe & shop” are also imprecise forms for this context. Aim for standard map-report expressions such as “has been redeveloped,” “facilities have been added,” and “the marina has been relocated.” More accurate vocabulary for spatial relationships would also help distinguish features that are adjacent, south of, or at the harbour entrance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including comparisons between the two plans, but errors in verb forms, articles, agreement and sentence construction are noticeable. Examples include “has became,” “castle converted in to hotel,” and “it convert in to private beach”; these need forms such as “has become,” “the castle was converted into a hotel,” and “it became a private beach.” The opening sentence, “The plans illustrate comparison … with current plan,” is also difficult to parse because its structure is incomplete. Some sentences communicate the intended meaning, but these errors sometimes make relationships unclear. Practise accurate past and present passive forms for map changes, and check articles and subject–verb agreement. Breaking long sentences into shorter, complete clauses will improve control.

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

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