Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-20

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 5.0)

The map illustrates a harbour in back 2000 and how it is today.

Porth Harbour has gone through a lot changes as today now. The marina private yachts and fishing boats along the car park and toilets are interchanged also they introduce a new sapce for another showers and toilets now on the south west side of main road. Also a new dock has intoduced for passenger ferries. Now there are two dorks for ferries to stop by.

To the front of ferries there is a lifeboat beside that they built cafes and shops.There was a castle in the south corner that was no longer in use is rebuilt into a hotel which is behind the lifeboat and also a attached road. They also have a private beach for the hotel residencials to use.

These aare the changes that happen to Harbour from 2000 to till today. It has advances a lot.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify several important changes, including the exchange of the marina and fishing-boat areas, the addition of cafés and shops, and the replacement of the disused castle with a hotel and private beach. These details are relevant and broadly match the plans. However, some features are unclear or inaccurately described: the new facilities are not “on the south west side of main road,” and the dock is not newly introduced; it gains an additional jetty and has two boats. The response also omits other notable changes, such as the added showers and toilets near the marina and the continued public beach in the north-east. A clearer overview of the harbour’s overall development, followed by more precise comparisons, would make the summary more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a basic sequence: it introduces the maps, describes changes around the harbour, then discusses the southern area. This gives the reader some sense of progression, and phrases such as “also” and “There was” help connect points. However, the organisation is not consistently clear. The second paragraph combines several changes in one long sequence, while “To the front of ferries” and “behind the lifeboat” make locations difficult to follow. The final sentence repeats the general idea that changes occurred rather than providing a distinct overview. Grouping changes by location or by major development, and using clearer references such as “in the northern basin” and “on the southern shore,” would improve the flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “marina,” “fishing boats,” “lifeboat,” “private beach,” and “hotel,” which helps convey the main changes. There are also attempts to describe development with phrases such as “interchanged” and “rebuilt into.” However, several word choices and spelling errors reduce precision: “dorks” appears to mean docks or jetties, “sapce” is misspelled, and “residencials” is not the appropriate term for hotel guests. Some expressions are also unnatural, such as “in back 2000” and “a lot changes.” Aim for accurate map vocabulary and natural collocations, for example “between 2000 and today,” “the facilities were relocated,” and “hotel guests.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

You attempt both simple and more extended sentences, including “The marina private yachts and fishing boats … are interchanged” and the sentence describing the castle’s replacement. However, control is uneven, and errors sometimes make relationships between features hard to understand. Examples include “Porth Harbour has gone through a lot changes,” which needs an article and a more suitable construction, and “There was a castle … that was no longer in use is rebuilt,” where the verb forms do not fit together. The sentence beginning “To the front of ferries” also lacks clear grammatical structure and punctuation between clauses. Practise accurate past-to-present comparisons, articles, and sentence boundaries; for example, “The disused castle has been replaced by a hotel.”

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.