Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-01

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 graphs below illustrate a harbour in 2000 and today. It highlight the changing in porth harbour between 2000 and today.

Overall, the big change in Porth Harbour was exchange the place of Fishing boats and Marina (Private Yachts). While, car park areas are still same but now showers and toilets were make between car paking areas.

Firstly, castle disused on south-east corner of porth was converted in to Hotel. Furthermore, connected this hotel with road that is on south side of Porth. Futher development is now cafe and shops are make in porth Harbour beside the Lifeboat. Public beach on north side of Porth is same between this period.

Secondly, the second public beach on south side of porth was convert in to private beach for the hotel. Now one more Dock is make in Porth. The main road and remaining design of the Porth Harbour are same between this period.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You identify several important changes, including the relocation of the fishing boats and marina, the conversion of the disused castle into a hotel, and the change from a public to a private beach. Your overview also recognises that the northern public beach remains. However, some details are inaccurate or unclear: the dock was not simply “one more Dock” added; it gained an additional jetty and has two boats berthed. The statement that the road “connected this hotel” is not supported by the plan, and the description of showers and toilets between car parks does not clearly capture the facilities added near the marina. Covering these changes more precisely, alongside the main-road and harbour-area continuity, would make the summary more complete and developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, an overview, and two paragraphs describing changes. Sequencing expressions such as “Overall,” “Firstly,” and “Secondly” help the reader follow the account, and the main changes are grouped into a broadly logical order. However, the progression is sometimes mechanical, and “While,” at the start of the overview sentence creates an incomplete contrast. Some references are also unclear: “the second public beach” could be mistaken for another beach, and “remaining design” does not specify which features are unchanged. Grouping the changes by location or by what was replaced, then using clearer links between sentences, would improve cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant map vocabulary, including “harbour,” “converted,” “private beach,” “Lifeboat,” and “main road,” so the reader can understand the general subject and several changes. There are also attempts at more specific terms, such as “south-east corner.” However, inaccurate word forms, spelling, and collocations reduce precision: “changing” is used where “changes” is needed, “exchange the place” is unnatural, and “make” is repeatedly used for developments that were built or added. “Graphs” is also not the appropriate term for plans. Aim for accurate, varied verbs and standard spellings so that the map features and transformations are described more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple sentences and more complex forms, including “While, car park areas are still same but now…” and “Furthermore, connected this hotel with road…”. This shows an effort to link ideas, but control is limited: several clauses are incomplete or incorrectly formed, and errors in tense, agreement, articles, and sentence construction sometimes make the meaning difficult to follow. For example, “It highlight the changing” needs a correctly formed subject–verb pattern, while “castle disused … was converted in to Hotel” needs a clearer noun phrase and article. Practise building accurate past-tense sentences to describe changes, and use present tense only for features that remain today.

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

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